LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf.,__S_§__ 



UNITED STATES OF AMEBICA. 



Religious Thought 



AT THE 



University of Michigan 



Being Adclressear delivered at the Sunday Morning Services of the 



leiiverea at uie o una ay morning services 01 uie * 
Students' Christian Association c (2-ww aJL 



ANN ARBOR, MICH. 

THE REGISTER PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Ube Unlanfc ipress 
1898 



/*3V 






Copyright 

students' christian association 

1893 



EDITOR'S NOTE. 



The Sunday morning services of the Students' Christian 
Association, inseparably connected, in the remembrances of 
the older Alumni, with the University Chapel, are now held 
in the auditorium of Newberry Hall. Attended mainly by 
students of the University, they bring together audiences vary- 
ing in numbers from one hundred and fifty to four or even five 
hundred. The programme of the exercises consists of sing- 
ing, reading 'of the Scriptures, and an address, from fifteen 
minutes to half an hour in length, upon some topic germane 
to the purposes of the Association. 

The addresses which are heard at these services are various 
in character. Sometimes they are appeals by members of the 
Association in the interest of specific objects, sometimes in- 
formal talks by religious workers who are visiting in the city. 
At somewhat irregular intervals members of the Faculties ap- 
pear upon the programme. The President of the Unversity, 
in accordance with an established custom, delivers at the be- 
ginning of each year what is known as the Annual Address. 

The twenty addresses of which the body of this volume is 
composed, were delivered by the President and by members of 
the University Faculties. The President's Annual Address, 
given at the beginning of last year, appears on pages 141-150. 
The remaining addresses form a series of which it will be 
necessary to speak in some detail. 



IV EDITOR S NOTE. 

The series had its origin in a suggestion that the Associa- 
tion avail itself of the Sunday morning services to obtain a 
record of the religious thought of the Universit}^. Most of the 
University instructors, it was pointed out, were interested, 
speculatively as well as practically, in matters of religion. 
Among them a great deal of quiet but active thinking about 
religious questions was continually going on, of which students 
had but occasional intimations. Why should not the Sun- 
day morning exercises be made a channel through which this 
thought could find expression ? The suggestion was taken up 
and acted upon. Provided with a list of topics, a committee 
of the Association called upon members of the University 
teaching force and asked them to prepare papers for the Sun- 
day morning services. The requests met with an immediate 
and hearty response, so that in February, 1892, the committee 
was able to prepare and announce a programme of ten ad- 
dresses to extend through the next four months. The series, 
begun Feb. 14 with a paper by Prof. Carhart on " God and 
Nature " (p. 110), was brought to a close May 15 with the ad- 
dress by President Angell which stands at the beginning of 
the present collection. 

During this time each paper after it had been delivered, 
was published in pamphlet form as a supplement to the Month- 
ly Bulletin of the Association, and sold to the students at a 
nominal price. The pamphlets were readily disposed of, and at 
the close of the year there appeared to be a demand for a more 
permanent and dignified issue of the addresses. Since, how- 
ever, the material was not sufficient to form a volume of any 
considerable bulk, it seemed best, by arranging for a second 
series of addresses, to increase the amount to the requisite 
proportions. The efforts of the committee were again rewarded, 



EDITOR S NOTE. V 

and during the months of March, April, May, and June, 1893, 
nine more papers were prepared and read. 

The twenty addresses, including the Annual Address of 
the President referred to above, of which the body of this 
volume is made up, have now all been accounted for. There 
remains to be noted the article by Prof. D'Ooge on "The 
Religious Life of the University, " which stands as an intro- 
duction to them. This was prepared at the request of the com- 
mittee of the Association especially for the place which it oc- 
cupies. 

The work of the editor has consisted simply in classifying 
the material put into his hands and in endeavoring to see it safe- 
ly through the press. In the latter task he has not been in every 
particular as successful as he could have wished. Errors have 
crept in, for some of which he is responsible, for others not. The 
most serious of them, because they involve the important mat- 
ter of record, are the two dates on pages 51 and 60. The first 
should be April 3, 1892, the second March 27. Annoying 
typographical perversities are also to be found on page 72 in 
the fourth line from the bottom of the page, on page 137, line 
14, and on page 152, line 13. The classification does not pre- 
tend either to strictness or consistency. If it shall seem to bring 
together the^ topics which are more closely related in thought, 
its purpose will have been accomplished. 

Ann Arbor, July, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

The Religious Life of the University. By Prof. Martin L. 

D'Ooge viii. 

I. 

HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Christianity and Other Religions Judged by Their Fruits. 
By President James B. Angell 3 

Primitive and Modern Christianity. By Prof. F. W. Kelsey. 15 

The Force of Christianity in United States History. By Prof. 
A. C. McLaughlin 23 

The Influence of the Roman Empire on the Growth of Christ- 
ianity. By Prof. J. C. Rolfe 39 

II. 

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Christianity as a Social Force. By Prof. H. C. Adams 51 

Christianity and Democracy. By Prof. John Dewey 60 

•Christianity and the Xewspaper. By Prof. F. X. Scott TO 

III. 

SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 

Religious Studies in Chemical Science. By Prof. A. B. Pres- 
cott 89 

How has Biological Research Modified Christian Conceptions ? 
By Prof. V. M. Spalding 96 

God and Nature. By Prof. H. S. Carhart 110 

The Methods of Science Applied to Christianity. By Prof. 
W. J. Herdman 124 



CONTENTS. Vll 

iy. 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

The Expanding Power of Christianity. By President James 
B. Angell , , 141 

A Pedagogical View of Some Xew Testament Sermons. By 
Prof. B. A. Hinsdale 151 

The Physician as a Christian. By Prof. C. B. Xancrede 165 

Why Should a Teacher be a Christian ? By Dr. E. E. Brown. 178 

Sic Utere Tuo ut Alienum non Lsedas. By Prof. F. R. Me- 
chem 191 

The Parable of the Prodigal Son. By Prof. B. M. Thompson. 204 

Sacred Music. By Prof. A. A. Stanley. 209 

The Right of Dissent Within the Church. By Prof. F. M. 
Taylor 221 

The Religious Condition of South America. By Prof. J. B. 
Steere 238 



THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



The unwritten and unknown history of a religious life 
must, in the nature of the case, be the more essential element 
of such a history. This truth applies not only -to individuals 
but also to communities, and with added force. Especially is 
this true of the religious life of such a community as is found 
within the halls of a university. Because, account for it as we 
may, there seems to be strange reluctance on the part of young 
men in college to be outspoken and pronounced in their relig- 
ious convictions and life. One of the strongest temptations 
that beset a student upon entering his college life is to 
suppress the religious feelings and activities with which he 
was engaged at his home. This is the case especially where all 
attendance upon religious duties is purely voluntary. This 
fact, to be sure, does not by any means indicate an abso- 
lute loss, for whatever religious activity is displayed under 
such circumstances is more sure to be genuine and sincere. 
Probably no one feature of the religious life of our students 
stands out more clearly than its freedom from pretence, its- 
downright genuineness. 

The next most characteristic feature of this life has been 
its breadth and catholicity. In an institution where all sects- 
and creeds are equally recognized, or rather where no sect or 
creed as such receives recognition, and young people of all 
faiths or of none meet in daily contact, it stands to reason that 
the spirit of bigotry and sectarianism is not likely to find much 



THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE UNIVERSITY. IX 

favor. This does not argue any prevalence of that easy kind 
of tolerance that so readily degenerates into indifferentism, but 
rather of a wholesome respect for the opinions of others coupled 
with a firm grasp upon the validity of one's own views. 

The University as the ward of a Christian Commonwealth 
has always been Christian in its character Religion has been 
recognized officially in the holding of daily prayers, usually 
conducted by the President, attendance upon which has been 
voluntary since 1871, in special religious services held in con- 
nection with various public occasions, and in addresses upon 
religious themes which have been given to the students by 
members of the Faculties. 

The atmosphere of the University has always been friendly 
to the nurture of religious life so far as it has been created by 
the influence and life of those who have been charged with the 
work of instruction, the larger number of whom have been in 
active sympathy and co-operation with the various branches of 
the Christian church. 

But, undoubtedly, the most active and potent religious in- 
fluence in the University has emanated from the organization 
known as the Students' Christian Association. This society 
recently celebrated the thirty-fifth anniversary or* its founding, 
and is now acknowledged to be the oldest association of its kind 
in this country. Its history, interesting and instructive as it 
is, cannot be told at this time in detail. We can only glance at 
its most salient points. The Students' Christian Association 
has passed through three important stages. The beginning of 
its life is chiefly the work of a company of earnest and devoted 
young men who were graduated from 1858 to 1861. It is im- 
possible in this sketch to single out the names of those who 
were most active and zealous in this work. Many of these 



X THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

noble spirits took part in the civil war and laid down their lives 
for their country. The Association started on its career under 
the most prevalent and thorough religions awakening that has 
ever come to bless the life of the University, an awaken- 
ing that was born of the general revival that swept over all 
our land in 1857 and 1858. 

It was about 1872 that the Association took on a more 
formal organic life. Its influence now reached farther than 
before. With the advent of women it gained a new force. It 
took charge of all religious work in the University, organized 
prayer-meetings, instituted Bible classes, and sought to develop 
the missionary spirit and interest in the work of the ministry 
by organizing "Mission" and "Ministerial Bands." The 
library of religious reading, which was originally collected 
through the efforts of President Tappan and Dr. C. L. Ford 
for the use of all students, passed under the immediate control 
of the Association, and was increased by large donations from 
publishing houses. 

The religious life of the student community was consider- 
ably stirred by a spiritual awakening which occurred in the 
winter of 1875. Since that time the only general revival of 
religious interest that has been inherent among us came as the 
result of a series of meetings held by the well-known evan- 
gelist, D wight L. Moody. 

Meanwhile the Christian Association has enlarged the 
scope of its activities. This has been made possible by the oc- 
cupancy of its new and beautiful home, Newberry Hall, which 
was dedicated two years ago. A more systematic study of the 
Bible has been organized, and opportunities for wider influence 
have been eagerly improved. The Association has increased 
its usefulness by conducting mission schools in and about the 



THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE UNIVERSITY. XI 

city, by holding religious services in the hospitals, and by as- 
sisting newly arrived students in finding desirable quarters for 
residence. With all the good work thus accomplished by this 
religious body, it still remains true that for some reason the 
interest and sympathy of the student community as a whole 
have not been enlisted in this association and its objects to the 
extent that might be expected. That this is partly due to the 
exclusivencss of the organization, resulting from the so-called 
"Portland test'' of membership, which shuts out from full 
participation all who are not already members of evangelical 
churches, can hardly be doubted. With the recent return to 
the original basis of membership on which all students who 
desire to lead a Christian life may enter into full membership, 
it is hoped and believed that the Association will commend 
itself more largely to the interest and sympathy of the entire 
student community. 

An interesting phase of the religious life of the University 
is likely to show itself, and indeed has already begun to appear 
in connection with the establishing of religious guilds under 
the auspices of several of the religious denominations repre- 
sented in the city. The Hobart Guild of the Episcopal Church, 
the Tappan Guild of the Presbyterian Church, the Wesleyan 
Guild of the Methodist Church, and the Foley Guild of the 
Koman Catholic Church are, each in its way, trying to shape 
and direct the religions and social life of the students. Just 
what the outcome of this movement is to be, it is yet too early 
to predict. In connection with one or two of these guilds it is 
the purpose to establish at once chairs of theological instruction 
in order to train students for the ministry. In two of the 
guilds regular courses of lectures have been founded, of 
a semi-popular character, on the history of the church, 



Xll THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

the evidences of Christianity, church institutions, and kin- 
dred themes. 

That the organization of schools of theology in this centre 
of: intellectual life is sure to affect directly and powerfully the 
thought and life of the entire student community needs no argu- 
ment. 

It is the prayerful desire of every thoughtful mind that 
knows anything about the multiform and keen intellectual life 
of this institution of learning, that this life should become 
more and more ennobled and consecrated by the purpose to 
serve God and man in the best possible way. That so many of 
this University's sons and daughters are to be found to-day in 
foreign fields as well as at home, serving the Master and 
trying to lift up and bless the children of ignorance and super- 
stition, is a cause of devout gratitude ; may their numbers be 
multiplied. 

The religious life of the University owes not a little of its 
strength to the sympathy and encouragement of the pastors 
and friends of the local churches. It is becoming better under- 
stood that no body of religious people can afford to ignore or 
to shut out of its sympathy this great centre of intellectual and 
spiritual power. What the character of this power shall be, 
whether for good or ill, rests to some extent at least with the 
Christian people of this State and of the churches of our land. 
It is their privilege to help make this University more and 
more a power for truth and God in the world. 

Martin L. D'Ooge. 



I. 

HISTOKICAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



CHEISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS JUDGED 
BY THEIR FRUITS. 

PRESIDENT JAMES B. ANGELL. 

Delivered May 15th, 1892. 

According to the teachings of the gospel of Christ, men, 
governments, religions, all institutions are like trees to be 
known by their fruits. We all agree that this is a just prin- 
ciple of judgment. If it does not bear good fruits, then no 
matter what authority is claimed for it, no matter how hoary 
with age are its institutions, no matter with what learning and 
eloquence it is defended, no matter how many millions of adher- 
ents it can boast, it must be and will be weighed in the bal- 
ance and found wanting. 

This standard, by which Christianity consents to be judged , 
it also applies in judging every other system of religion. There 
are not a few persons who, observing how different religions 
have sprung up in different countries, have called attention to 
some useful features of each and have attempted to persuade 
us that each is especially adapted to meet the wants of some 
nation and is better suited to their needs than any other relig- 
ion, than even Christianity itself. Of course, it follows as a 
consequence, if their main position is right, that it is obtrusive, 
impertinent, and even harmful for the disciples of Christ to go 
everywhere preaching the gospel, and offering a lesser for a 
greater good. But Christianity claims to be a religion for all 
men, the best religion for all nations, better for the Arabs and 



4 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

Turks than Mohammedanism, better for the Hindus than Brah- 
manism or Buddhism, better for the Chinese than Confucian- 
ism or Taoism, better for the Japanese than Shintoism, better 
for all men than any other or allotherfaiths, because it reveals 
to us more clearly than any other the will of God concerning 
man, and so makes better men and better institutions. It does 
not ignore whatever is good or true in them. It furnishes that 
and something more, and so by a natural process supersedes 
them. As the morning sun with its floods of light drowns and 
quenches not only the misleading will-o'-the-wisps but also the 
very stars of night, so Christianity, if once received, supplants 
all other faiths and they vanish from our sight. 

In spite of the intimations or statements of some modern 
writers that after all there is not so much to choose between 
the chief religions of the world, since each has certain merits 
and meets some deep wants of believers in it, I do not see how 
ah impartial man can observe the fruits borne by non-Christian 
systems and those borne by Christianity without recognizing the 
immense superiority of Christianity as an actual working force 
among men. 

I admit the difficulty of determining with precision exactly 
what results in a human life or in the life of a nation are due 
to religion. Life is complex. The factors which shape it are 
many. We cannot always measure the power of each factor. 
Still there are some results which are plainly due in a part to 
the religious beliefs of a man or a people. As we study the 
life of a nation, we can mark certain characteristic traits and 
tendencies, of which we can say with certainty that they are 
not due to race or climate or to anything but the religious belief 
of the nation. 

Having been during my visit to Asia compelled to see the 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 5 

operation of certain non-Christian systems, I have often been 
constrained to ask myself, "What fruits are lacking to them 
which Christianity yields?" Let me mention some of the 
answers which plain facts seem to suggest. 

Now partly because some objectors to the superiority of 
Christianity set little or no store by what we may call the dis- 
tinctly spiritual results of Christianity and partly to leave the 
case as strong as justice requires for the non-Christian religions, 
I will omit the consideration of what we call the spiritual results 
of Christian faith and contemplate only some of those ethical, 
social and intellectual results of Christianity which mark its 
superiority to all other faiths. These are the kinds of results 
whose value none can question. 

1. In the first place I think that Christianity has succeeded 
in strengthening beyond all other religions the fundamental 
virtue of truthfulness. No doubt the ethics of the Asiatic 
religions are higher than those of any other non-Christian sys- 
tem. But it is the universal testimony of travellers that verac- 
ity is appreciated nowhere in Asia as it is in Northern Europe 
and in this country. Other virtues are set above it, as for 
instance in India kindness to animals; and in China filial respect. 
Lying is there a venial sin. To resort to it to escape from 
slight embarrassments surprises nobody. 

Now with us, while there are unhappily too many men 
who do not always tell the truth, yet I think all regard truth- 
fulness as the keystone of character. In the absence of this 
virtue we do not confidently look for any other. Experienced 
teachers will tell you that they cherish hopes of saving a way- 
ward youth provided that he does not lie. But if he is a liar, 
there is nothing to build character on. The scripture thunders 
out its most terrible denunciations against lying and liars. It 



6 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

withers and scorches the liar to a crisp in the blazing fires of 
its rebuke. Public opinion here brands a liar with unspeakable 
scorn and ineffable contempt. Xo man can retain the respect 
of decent men if his word is not good. Wherever Christianity 
is the purest and has the strongest hold on men, there the stan- 
dard of truthfulness is highest and most rigorously respected. 
We so instinctively regard truthfulness as an essential of Chris- 
tian character that we immediately pronounce any man or any 
nation, that lacks this virtue, unchristian. To have empha- 
sized, developed and strengthened the virtue of veracity, this 
fundamental virtue, is not the least of the achievements of 
Christianity. 

2. Again the attention of the traveller is strikingly arrested 
by the surprising contrast in the position accorded to women in 
Christian and non-Christian countries. Often as I contem- 
plated the wretched lot of women in Asia, did the pathetic 
words in which Goethe makes Iphigenia pour forth her pathetic 
plaint, spring to my lips. "Der Frauen Zustand ist bel'Iagens- 
werth." "The condition of women is lamentable. " Those 
words might be chiselled as an appropriate inscription on the 
gates of the cities and on the doorposts of the houses. So 
indeed it is in all the eastern world at present. Woman is 
doomed to ignorance. Her life has no width of horizon. She 
is the slave and the drudge of man. Her mind is not deemed 
worthy of education. I know of nothing in all the east so pain- 
ful to the view of men from a Christian land as the condition of 
woman. 

It is only where the gospel has shed its light, that woman 
is recognized as the companion of man, with faculties susceptible 
and deserving of as careful training as his, with a soul touched 
to finer issues than his, with duties, if in some respects different, 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. ( 

yet every whit as important and as responsible as his, because 
her primal duty and responsibility to God are the same as his. 
From the time when our Lord showed such delicate and beauti- 
ful courtesies to the sisters in Bethany, down through the days 
of Christian knighthood and quite to our own era, there has been 
in all Christendom a certain chivalric respect for woman which 
has never been witnessed any where outside of Christendom, and 
which has brought the highest blessings on men as well as on 
women, and has advanced and enriched and exalted all our civil- 
ization. This is distinctly a fruitage of Christian growth. 

3. The traveller in non-Christian lands is struck with the 
lack of those great organized charities, whether private or public, 
which are found so abundantly in all Christian lands. These 
are wanting, not because there is no need of them. The poor 
and the suffering are everywhere. Beggars line the streets, 
crowd the gates of temples and cities, swarm upon your path. 
The blind, the deaf, the insane, the diseased are unhappily to 
be found in all lands. Nor are kind hearts wanting altogether 
in any land. But nowhere else has the duty of making large 
and careful provision for the needy been so clearly recognized as 
in the countries where the parable of the good Samaritan has 
been preached. Homes for orphans, asylums for the blind, for 
deaf mutes, for the insane, thoroughly appointed hospitals for 
the sick, nay, even humanely conducted prisons for the crimi- 
nals, these all are the outgrowth of Christianity. The prisons 
of Asia are an abomination and disgrace to the race. Dante's 
Inferno with its fearful scenes hardly surpasses in horror some 
of those hells upon earth. It is only where Christianity has 
taken root that proper ideas of the punishment of the guilty are 
combined with a proper regard for the humanity which is found 
even in the most hardened criminals. 



8 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

And surely it is Christianity alone which has led large- 
hearted and skilful physicians to go to heathen lands to estab- 
lish hospitals for the gratuitous aid of the needy. When did 
Brahmanism or Buddhism or Confucianism set on foot such an 
undertaking? So strange is the idea to the Asiatic nations that 
they cannot comprehend the thought that good men and women 
have come to help them, out of utterly unselfish and humane 
motives. Such is the distance between Christianity and the 
eastern systems of religion. 

4. The most superficial observer must be struck with the 
fact that in non-Christian states government, as a rule, takes 
on the type of absolutism. The state or the emperor is every 
thing, the individual nothing. Even in the ancient Greek and 
Roman republics this was largely true. The theory underlying 
them was that the individual existed for the state, not the state 
for the individual. The majority or the dominant faction spoke 
for the state, and the minority had few rights clearly recog- 
nized. Consequently the very best men were often ostracized 
or slain. There can hardly be said to be any individualism in 
Asiatic life. In certain cases there are strata of society. But 
in each stratum meu rarely emerge above the dead level. 
Absolutism sits on its throne, tyrannical and often unjust. It 
is so arbitrary that no western nation consents to submit its citi- 
zens to the oriental courts. We have by treaty secured the 
right to establish our courts for trying our own citizens in all 
these lands. 

It is too often forgotten that Christianity planted the germ 
of individual liberty in Europe by showing what is the worth of 
the human soul and by declaring that it has certain indefeas- 
ible rights of which not even the state can deprive it. When 
Peter and his associates declared to the astonished high priests, 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 9 

■"We must obey God rather than men," they proclaimed that 
true higher law doctrine, which has come sounding down 
through the centuries, setting bounds to absolutism, and nerv- 
ing brave hearts everywhere to the assertion of their funda- 
mental rights and duties. Christianity has come to reverse or 
at any rate to modify the old doctrine, and to declare in sub- 
stance that the individual is not made for the state so much as 
the state for the individual, that men are not made for institu- 
tions, but all institutions, ordinances, sabbaths, churches, gov- 
ernments are here for the protection, elevation and salvation of 
individual men. When an institution utterly fails in this, be 
it church or government, it should give place to something 
better. The New Testament is the great charter of the rights 
of the human soul. Whatever improper restrictions are put 
upon human freedom in one or two nominally Christian lands, 
it is unquestionably true that civil liberty is most secure where 
the gospel doctrine of human rights is most clearly and fully 
recognized. 

5. The traveller and the scholar have not failed to notice 
that non-Christian nations, even the most civilized, have never 
wrought out any well defined system of international law to 
govern their intercourse with each other. This is not an acci- 
dent. There was, of course, some personal exchange of civili- 
ties between sovereigns. But in general a foreigner was an 
enemy. In the Greek a foreigner was a barbarian. There 
was no word in either tongue to express the modern idea of 
neutrality between belligerents. The fundamental notion of 
international law, that nations are equal in respect to rights, is 
a distinctively Christian idea, a corollary from the doctrine of 
Christian brotherhood proclaimed by St. Paul in his great dis- 
course on Mars Hill, when he announced to the Greeks that 



10 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

God "hath made of one blood all the nations of men," that is> 
they are children of one common Father, and so brethren. The 
Asiatic idea has been that nations live in isolation unless one is- 
subject to another. For a long time China was unwilling to 
negotiate with western powers save as a superior with inferiors. 
The narrow conceptions of all Asiatic religions failed to grasp 
the idea of the brotherhood of man and the equal rights of 
nations, which is the very soul of. modern international law. 
The whole system rests avowedly on the just and humane prin- 
ciple of Christian ethics, audit is possible thus far for Oriental 
nations to be admitted only partially to reciprocity under it& 
code, because they have not fully accepted those ideas of justice, 
which Christianity has wrought into our system of jurispru- 
dence. 

6. The attitude of Christianity toward truth in general is- 
more friendly and just than that of other religions. I do not 
forget how far short of the true catholicity of pure Christianity 
many of its professed disciples have come. Christianity itself 
is hospitable to truth from whatever source. Its supreme aim 
is truth. One of its chosen titles of its great Master, is The 
Truth. I know full well that many of its disciples have not 
been quick to give a welcome to new truth. Sometimes they 
have persecuted the messengers of truth. Sometimes they have 
been indifferent or hostile to the messages of truth, scientific, 
political or religious. Often this opposition has been due to the 
ignorance of men, who sincerely believed they were defending 
the truth, as Saul thought he was doing God service by haling 
Christians to prison. But after making all the concessions- 
which are demanded on this score, it still remains indisputable 
that whether we consider the doctrines themselves or the believ- 
ers in them, no religion can be for a moment compared with the 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. 11 

Christian faith for its promotion and dissemination of all kinds 
of truth. 

In some lands learning is the exclusive possession of the 
priests, and by a natural impulse they shut their eyes to all 
learning which they do not originate or which cannot be made 
subservient to their special purposes. In others the believers 
are taught that their religious books contain all that is needful 
for man to know, and so all new truth is rejected as superfluous 
or obtrusive. 

With the single exception of a few Brahmins, who have 
made some study of the religion of their English conquerors, it 
is the Christian disciple alone, who has made a careful philo- 
sophic study of all religions and sought with impartiality to 
recognize the good in each. It is from the bosom of Christian 
civilization with its great schools of learning, that nearly all sci- 
entific discovery has come. A very large proportion of the sci- 
entific investigators and discoverers, the Keplers and Newtons 
and Faradays abroad, the Peirces and Danas and Grays at 
home, have been most devout and reverent Christian men. The 
services to scholarship, to scientific learning, to the general 
increase of the treasures of the human mind, which have been 
rendered by all the civilizations that are dominated by non- 
Christian religions fall immeasurably short of the contributions 
of Christian civilization, although only about one-fourth of the 
human race are even nominally Christian. 

Now I have stated, and have stated, I think, with modera- 
tion, some of the advantages which Christianity as a practical, 
working religion presents over other religions. I have not spo- 
ken at all of its distinctively spiritual superiority, of the high 
and rational hopes and aspirations, which it kindles in the soul 
by its revelation of a personal God and of our personal rela- 



12 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

tions to Him, by its scheme of redemption from sin through 
Jesus Christ, by the "power of an endless life" which it sets 
up in the soul. What zeal for righteousness it has thus kindled 
in noble hearts, what patience under suffering it has generated 
in weak souls, whose trials, whose victories, and whose names 
are unknown to us! What crucitixions for the love of others 
it has enabled men to endure with songs on their lips, what 
errands of mercy for mankind has it sentsaints upon, how beau- 
tiful upon the mountains are the feet of its messengers as they 
publish their glad tidings to-day over all the world, what hero- 
ism, what self-sacrifice, what unselfish devotion to the right it 
has stimulated throughout Christendom! 

But all these rich spiritual fruits of Christianity I pass by 
for the present, though I do not see how any but the most deter- 
mined agnostic, who denies the possibility of knowing anything 
of God or of the future life, can fail to perceive how far high- 
er are the inspirations of Christian revelation than those of the 
sensual paradise of Mohammedanism or those of the abstruse 
metaphysics or crude absurdities of the Hindu faiths. I have 
confined myself to some of the purely ethical, social, political 
and intellectual gains which it has brought to the race. 

A religion which, beyond all others, fosters the fundamen- 
tal virtue of truthfulness, which places woman in her true posi- 
tion, which fills the world with the blessed fruits of public and 
private charities, which has planted the germs of civil liberty 
by recognizing the worth of the individual and his true relation 
to the State, which has largely substituted for war the regulat- 
ing power of Christian ethics in determining the relations of 
nations, and which recognizing God as the author of all truth 
and the creator and governor of all things in the universe, stim- 
ulates the reverent and ardent search for all truth in the conn- 



CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS. IB 

dent faith that there is no breach or schism in the kingdom of 
truth, — a religion, which in these respects is clearly far supe- 
rior to any or all others, is certainly not to be classed with them 
as one of several religions equally good, or as a local or a race 
religion, good for the west, but not better than Buddhism or 
Confucianism for the east. 

Its stamp of superiority is in its work, in its whole history, 
in its present triumphs, in its great tendencies, in the prophe- 
cies of good to all mankind, with which its life is eloquent. It 
is in the study of its essential character, in the contemplation of 
what it has actually done, that we read no less clearly than in 
the promises of Scripture, the prediction of its ultimate triumph 
over the whole earth. Its progress may seem to us slow. But 
all history, sacred and profane, shows us that the human race 
moves and has always moved forward at a rate which seems to 
our impatience slow. It is entirely probable that in some 
respects Christianity will take on a different coloring in differ- 
ent parts of the world. But that in some form, in which its 
fundamental characteristics are retained, it must at last super- 
sede the inferior religions of the world, no one can doubt who 
believes that ultimately the highest and best truth, the truth 
which is most beneficent to man, will by its inherent force pre- 
vail throughout the world. We may well hope that while 
unchanged in its essential traits, it may, when interpreted by 
the various temperaments and experiences of oriental and 
African peoples, take on a richness and depth and beauty and 
fulness of significance to which we are now strangers. The 
world will then at once have discovered and demonstrated that 
Christianity is not merely a religion, but the religion, not a 
Judean or Galilean sect, not merely a western religion, but the 
one universal religion, including all that is good and rejecting 



14 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

all that is bad in all other religions, the one and only best faith 
for all kingdoms and states. Then shall be fulfilled the predic- 
tion of our Lord, that there shall be one flock made up of many 
folds, and there shall be one shepherd blessed for ever. 



PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 



PROF. FRANCIS W. KELSEY. 



Delivered May 8, 1892. 

Christianity is no experiment. For more than eighteen 
centuries it has been tested by the demands arising from every 
phase of human experience. It has witnessed the passing of 
over fifty generations of men. It has outlived the civilization, 
the political, social and moral conditions in which it originated. 
It has survived the destruction of states and institutions with 
whose life its own existence seemed inseparably connected. 
Yet to-day its influence is more widely extended and more po- 
tent in the world than in any previous time. It is well to turn 
for a few moments from the present outlook, to see what were 
the beginnings of that which has become so important a factor 
in human progress. 

To all appearances, Christianity at the start was doomed 
to immediate and irretrievable extinction. Its founder avoided 
centres of political authority, and sought to gain no influence 
as a diplomat. He gathered no army to enforce his claims, but 
taught his followers to be long-suffering under oppression. He 
founded no school of philosophy, whose members would cherish 
and proclaim his teachings. He left no writings that might be 
referred to in the future as an authentic statement of his doc- 
trine. He did not even select a body of trained minds to in- 
terpret and transmit his message ; the men he chose were for the 
most part unlettered. After only three years of labors, that 



16 P. W. KELSEY. 

to most of his contemporaries seemed folly and failure, lie was 
seized and executed, suffering the most ignominious death 
known to the times. His defenceless followers, without organ- 
ization, without full comprehension of their master's work and 
purposes, were dismayed at the fact and manner of his death. 
Thus Christianity had its origin in a career and amid circum- 
stances to which history presents no parallel, which seemed 
utterly inconsistent with all conditions of success. 

Hardly less remarkable was the early and rapid extension 
of Christianity. No powerful princes espoused its claims and- 
promoted its interests. No richly endowed theological semi- 
naries sent forth each year their eager throngs of earnest and- 
trained preachers. No Bible societies scattered copies of the 
sacred documents wherever men would read them. No pon~ 
derous volumes of theological lore summed up for the inquirer 
the results of the investigations and reflections of the most 
learned men. Simply from mouth to mouth the word was 
passed. One believer told another the story of the Christ and 
the new life. Slaves, peasants, soldiers, traders transmitted 
the message to their fellows. Men and women of higher rank 
became interested. Within a hundred years after the cruci- 
fixion of Jesus as a malefactor, Christianity was known and 
professed in all parts of the Roman empire, and had counted 
among its adherents at least a few who stood near the throne 
of Rome. 

And this progress was not without opposition. For three 
centuries the rising church was in the midst of constant and 
deadly conflict. Whatever the indebtedness of Christianity to 
Judaism at the beginning, short time passed before Judaism 
joined hands with paganism to crush it out. Nor was the 
strife with paganism simply a war of creeds. Paganism was. 



PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 17 

incarnate in the authority of Rome. The bureaucratic, abso- 
lute administration of the Roman empire, like that of Russia 
to-day, found its only safety in crushing out all organizations 
not directly under governmental supervision. The strictest 
laws forbade associations of people except for certain clearly 
defined purposes. Christ left no manual of church govern- 
ment; but the association of the faithful in groups and bodies 
was an immediate result of his teachings regarding brother- 
hood and his institution of the sacrament of the holy commun- 
ion. So soon as the church began to organize, it came into 
collision with the laws of Rome. It was persecuted on polit- 
ical grounds, as a matter of public policy. A legal basis for 
persecution was never lacking. Heedless or bad emperors, to 
whom the condition of the empire was a matter of small con- 
cern, might pass the Christians by; but good emperors, as 
Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, who wished to govern for the 
best interests of the state, could not, consistently with imperial 
traditions and policy, do otherwise than endeavor to obliterate 
that new religion which admitted no amalgamation or compro- 
mise with the creeds recognized by the state authorities, and 
whose fundamental tendencies caused it to be at variance with 
established laws. Yet whether in peace or in persecution, the 
church increased everywhere in numbers and influence. At 
the beginning of the fourth century, while Judaism had indeed 
lost ground, paganism had so far declined that Christianity 
soon replaced it as the state religion. 

It is clear that in the progress of Christianity in the early 
time we discover the manifestation or operation of a force The 
analogy of that force is to be found, not in physical or chemic- 
al, but in biological, science. For the force which manifests 
itsalf through Christianity has the characteristics of vitality. 



18 F. W. KELSEY.. 

It began at once to clothe itself with an organism — the church. 
This organism underwent a process of differentiation in adjust- 
ing itself to its environment, The interaction between the 
organism and its environment affected both . In all that is out- 
ward, in government and in ritual, the branches of the Chris- 
tian church to-day represent the result of centuries of action 
and reaction between the inner force and the world without. 
Who will say that in all that is exterior the Christianity of 
to-day is not an illustration of the principle of evolution? 

Systems of theology, no less than the institutions of the 
church, attest the same development. Theologies are the phil- 
osophic treatises, creeds are the text-books, or primers, which 
deal with the force and its manifestations. Just as scientific 
treatises vary from generation to generation, according to point 
of view or correctness of method or range of facts; just as in 
this field each generation tests the work of the preceding and 
makes its own contribution, so, in the history of the literature 
of Christianity from the days of Justin andMinucius Felix, the 
statement of all except fundamental principles has undergone 
constant revision, the imperfect explanation or interpretation 
of one epoch being corrected by the following. The needs of 
the race vary with every age. Even old truths must be 
restated, in the forms most appropriate to the environment. 
Who will declare that the last word has yet been said in phys- 
ics or chemistry or biology? Who will say that these sciences 
do not involve mystery as impenetrable to human ken as the 
mysteries of our faith, or that a final statement in this stage of 
being will be possible ? Then in view of the mystery and the 
vast rauge of data comprised in that manifestation which we 
call Christianity, we may well doubt whether a final and all- 
comprehensive statement will ever be made by man. 



PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 19 

This development, or evolution, of Christianity, suggested 
by the contrast between primitive and modern forms, is no 
meaningless accident. It is a fact fraught with the highest sig- 
nificance for the church and for the world. No fact more 
clearly shows forth the divine origin of Christianity, or points 
out its mission as the world-religion. The history of the 
church as a whole is an illustration of the law of the survival 
of the fittest. Christianity has shown a constant tendency to 
take the place of inferior beliefs. In its own inner life there 
has been a marked tendency to pass from lower to higher forms. 
When it has become encrusted with elements alien to its own 
nature, it has burst its bonds and freed itself from the tram- 
mels of formalism and corruption. That vitality manifest in 
the beginning still pervades the church. Will anyone say that 
God is not imminent in it, working through it the accomplish- 
ment of his far-reaching plans? 

Amid all tne shifting and changing of the Christian cen- 
turies, in all the interaction between Christianity and its 
environment, one element has remained constant, unchanging, 
essential. Christianity was not primarily a system of govern- 
ment, a ritual, or a theology; it was a life. It was the individ- 
ual life for which Jesus died. It was the sin, the sorrow, the 
hopelessness of an existence without a future beyond the grave 
that He came to succor. It w T as the joyousness of a life redeem- 
ed that spread the message of good tidings throughout the 
Roman Empire; the half-hearted priests of paganism, the hoe- 
tile Jews, even the authorities of Rome herself were powerless 
to stay its course. It was the humility of a devout life, the 
courage of a faithful life, the self-sacrifice of a consecrated life, 
the purity of a sanctified life, that amazed and angered the cor- 
rupt pagan world. 



20 F. W. KELSEY. 

No pen or pencil can portray the trials of the Christian in 
those days. Men were tested as by fire. Occupations and pro- 
fessions, business forms and social usages, were all interwoven 
with pagan traditions and interpenetrated with religious obser- 
vances abhorrent to the follower of Jesus. Acceptance of 
Christianity drove a sharp line of cleavage between the con- 
verted heathen and all he held dear. The battle for him was 
not for a day or a month, but for years, for life. When per- 
secution came, uuless he paid worship to the Emperor's image 
or that of some other divinity, he was treated as a criminal, 
subject to the most awful tortures or to death. Yet so terrible 
the strain of the Christian life that many an one sought the 
martyr's crown, that he might be the sooner with his Lord. 
Harder to bear even than physical suffering was the atmosphere 
of scandal and ridicule about the early church. Men reported, 
and believed, that the Christians worshipped the head of an 
ass; that a part of the ceremony of initiation consisted in plung- 
ing a poiguard into the flesh of a young child, and sucking its 
blood; and that a part of the celebration of the Lord's supper was 
only a cover for the most fearful orgies and unrestrained de- 
bauchery. Persecution and slander only winnowed the church. 
Then, as now, there were excrescences of Christian character. 
Then, as now, some emphasized one virtue or one trait more 
than others, and made it prominent. But whatever may be 
saidjin regard to development in other elements of Christianity, 
the type and the ideal of the life of the follower of Jesus have 
undergone no changes. The same simplicity, consecration, fer- 
vor, selt'-forgetfulness and unswerving faith which the world 
regards as truly Christian to-day, have been so regarded from 
the beginning. 

If this be true, do we not see in the Christian character 



PRIMITIVE AND MODERN CHRISTIANITY. 21 

that which is fundamental and essential, the germ and center 
of Christianity? Church government and forms of worship 
and systems of theology are a part of the necessary adjustment 
of Christianity to the world; but only in the salvation of the 
individual soul do we find its true purpose, and witness the man- 
ifestation of its highest power. Other religions have been 
adjusted only to a limited environment. They have met, 
though only in part, the aspirations of a single race or a single 
nation or of a series of tribes or peoples, similarly conditioned. 
Other religions have shown themselves incapable of passing the 
ethnic or geographical bounds within which they originated, and 
have failed either to attract or to convert the world. Chris- 
tianity alone is truly catholic, circumscribed in its capability 
of adjustment to human conditions by no limitations of race or 
time or physical boundaries. The message that the early Chris- 
tians transmitted slowly along the great Koman roads is the 
same as that which to-day speeds over the world with the aid 
of steam and electricity. The zeal of those days in the spread 
of the gospel finds a fitting complement in the missionary activ- 
ity of the present age. 

Why Christianity has appealed to the individual life, and 
through it has influenced the world, is not far to seek. It com- 
pletely meets the needs of man's religious nature. It offers 
redemption from sin, which he has found nowhere else. It sets 
before him moral perfection as an ideal, and presents a perfect 
life as model. It stimulates the intellectual life: 'Prove all 
things,' it says, 'hold fast to that which is good.' It enjoins 
the care of the body as 'the temple of the Holy Ghost.' Even 
the appreciation of the beautiful in our earthly life received 
the sanction of Christ; who can read what He said of the lilies 
of the field and not feel that for all time He has bidden men 



22 F. W. KELSEY. 

look toward the ideal of beauty as well as of holiness? But 
above all, to the straggling, sorrowing soul there comes to-day, 
as in the earliest days, that message of present help and encour- 
agement, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world.' So long as weak, erring, perplexed human nature 
remains the same, so long will Christianity continue to minis- 
ter to it as no other religion ever has done; and the faith of 
Jesus can never be superseded, for in its essentials it is perfect 
and enjoins perfection. 

What word, then, does the primitive church send across 
the ages to the present hour? It bids us rejoice that we are 
born in a period and land free from the fiery trials of faith 
through which it passed. It bids us see clearly the distinct- 
ion between germinal and historical Christianity, between the 
religion of Jesus as a vital principle and its embodiment in 
institutions which, though a necessary result of innate tenden- 
cies brought into relation with an environment, are neverthe- 
less not the essential things. It bids us first of all "Seek 
the Kingdom of God and His righteousness;" and then, with 
the calm trust and confidence of a soul conscious of its redemp- 
tion, to live the Christ-life day by day. It bids us convey to 
others, near and far, the tidings of great joy. Finally it bids 
us join with the redeemed of all ages in the hope and proph- 
ecy,— 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run, 
His Kingdom spread from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more." 



THE FORCE OF CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES 

HISTORY. 



" And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you tree.'" John VIII— 32; 
also Acts XVII— 26. 



PROF. AN T DREW C. MC LAUGHLIN. 

Delivered April io, 1892. 

Force and Christianity seem antithetical. Of Christianity 
we predicate gentleness, love, and peace. Humility and mod- 
esty, rather than energy, may be said to be the attributes of the 
followers of the Son of Man. But such an antithesis is only 
apparent. Christianity may be partially defined in a great 
many ways, but however you attempt to describe it, its place is 
in the field of dynamics and not of statics. Christianity is true 
life, is movement, is the unfolding by action of the perfect 
truth of God. Christ c!ime to lead us to the truth. His teach- 
ings are the touch -stone of truth. A nation is feeling the force 
of Christ or exhibiting the force of Christianity as it struggles 
to a fuller realization of truth in its national life. 

Does Christianity show itself in the forces of history? 
History is popularly supposed to consist of a succession of bat- 
tles, or the rise or fall of dynasties, or at best the- growth of 
institutions through the influence of individual men, or per- 
chance through apparent accident. Unless the church, as the 



24 A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 

instrument of God, has directly shaped a political movement, 
or a man imbued with Christian doctrine has preached the liv- 
ing truth and influenced the founders of states, or unless there 
has been some direct and evident manifestation of God's power, 
we conceive the state as a heathen thing, coming into being and 
moving its way along unaided or unguided by the life-giving 
breath of God. We are ready to study most profoundly the 
wonderful conversion of Constantine, and are willing to accept 
the cross in the heavens as a God-given miracle. Even if it 
were subjective entirely, we fain would see God coming from 
His throne to change the life of the Roman Empire, by turning 
the mind of its Caesar to a contemplation of the verities of 
Christianity. In accord with such a conception of history, the 
Maker and Ruler of the universe, for three hundred years and 
more after the birth of Christ, sat upon His distant Olympus 
and watched the different races' of warring men, His curiosity 
l^iqued perhaps, to see how all would result. 

"We are willing also, as students of God's work in the 
world, to study eagerly the introduction of the Church into 
ancient England. We trace the work of Augustine with rigid 
care. E.ich new advance of the priests from kingdom to king- 
dom we note with greac exactness, as if we were seeing the 
advance of God into regions which before he had not known. 
I would not underestimate the beatific influence of the Church 
in old distraught, chaotic England. My contention is simply 
for a fuller recognition of God's presence in the world, and I 
would maintain that He was not wholly absent or unconcerned 
when the semi-barbarous, wholly-heathen, brutal Englishman 
came from the forests of Germany, swept the remnants of 
Roman power into the sea, and scattered the sluggish, forceless 
Christian British into mountain fastnesses of the island. God 



CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. 25 

was not absent when that heathen wedge was inserted into the 
Christian Roman Empire. For the Christianity was devoid of 
vigor. Not every one that cries, Lord! Lord! is a forceful 
child of God. The heathen nation was alive, physically strong, 
mentally alert, and imbued with a certain feeling of rugged 
independence and of sturdy individuality, qualities that were 
never to be lost, but to withstand the vicissitudes oid trials of 
the passing centuries, to show themselves refined and disciplined 
in institutions of government whereby the individual might 
more fully realize himself and perfect himself as a member of 
the whole. The heathenism itself contained strong elements 
which were of great service in the progress of Christian civili- 
zation. "In the old Gothic religion were embodied principles 
and .... morals that in due course of time and under 
favorable circumstances evolved the Republic of Ireland, the 
Magna Charta of England, and the Declaration of Independ- 
ence." ( : ) 

I shall be obliged at the very outset to insist upon this con- 
ception of history. There is method in the seeming madness, 
in the hurly-burly of succeeding events in history. There is 
progress through the centuries toward a completer development 
of man, toward a completer realization of himself, toward com- 
pleter freedom. The wandering savage who is a bond-slave to 
the forces of nature, becomes their master as society becomes 
more complicated and as each mau more fully expresses him- 
self in the highly organized state. As the centuries go by, 
man becomes a higher being; for an increase of duties means an 
increase of functions. As a social being, by a thousand tender 
tentacles, he holds fast to his fellows and gives them aid, and 
is nourished in turn again. It is impossible to conceive of him 

(^Anderson's Norse Mythology, p. 129. 



26 A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 

save in his relations. We watch the multiplication and 
strengthening of these relative ties, and we know that this is 
the process of history — the transformation of nomadic man into 
the highly developed social being of the twentieth century. It 
is a fundamental conception — and I shall endeavor to show its 
application in America — that man has been increasing in a fuller 
realization of himself, and freedom has been increasing in 
depth and meaning. In the perfect state we shall have perfect 
freedom, for there we shall have perfect love and a perfect 
arrangement of society. Man has not lost his individuality 
but is gaining it. He becomes more of a man and a higher 
man when he can perform more duties. The law of perfect 
love, which is perfect self-sacrifice, is not self-stultification or 
self-destruction, but the building up — the edification of self 
into a higher and nobler companion to man and child of God. 
There are many who would deny that the scientific study of 
history is possible. Political science is deemed a pleasing 
figure of speech. The scoffer would study with diligence the 
gregarious habits of the chimpanzee, and wonder at the artful 
works of a colony of ants or beavers. Generalization would 
follow generalization, and a pretty piece of inductive science 
be the result. But man, he says, has free will; he is bound by 
no law; he is more and more an independent and self -determine 
ing being. Now nothing could be more false than this. Free 
agency is a wof ully over-burdened phrase. The advancing ages 
have shown man less and less the subject of caprice. He daily 
moves in paths that may be traced. He is more and more the 
creature of law. We must not set God to work over a beaver 
dam or an ant-hill, and banish Him when a mighty state is 
rearing out of the chaos of savagery. A broad study of the 
events of history will show that different nations playing their 



CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. 27 

parts have their exits and their entrances in the world's great 
drama. Political science in its study of institutions, a study 
as yet in its infancy, has shown the force of great laws of devel- 
opment. The historian who looks deep into the events of the 
passing ages is not content with saying: " Thus Luther spake. 
Here Cromwell strove for victory." Luther was the embodi- 
ment of the spirit of the Reformation. Through Cromwell 
there surged that dominant spirit of free man that was working 
its will in the life of the English nation. What was Luther 
without reference to the past or the present? What was Crom- 
well if we blind our eyes to the forces of his century that were 
working through him to produce that delicately constituted 
English state government, where man is now working his way 
to greater and more glorious freedom? The spirit of the age, 
• — what is it but the will of God manifesting itself through 
men as imperfect instruments of power? 

The reign of law, then, is not confined to what we unjustly 
describe as nature. Unjustly, I say, for organized man, or 
men organized constitute a natural phenomenon. The state 
and its work are emphatically not artificial. There may be 
truth in the statement of James Wilson, that as man is the 
noblest work of God, so the state is the noblest work of man. 
But. it is a precarious footing for judge or statesman. The 
blending of common impulses, of common sympathies and 
hopes is the broad basis of the state, and this is a natural and 
not an artificial process. 

We see the force of God in nature in a thousand complex 
acts of the dumb creatures below us. We recognize the pres- 
ence of a great force in nature, and as Christians we would not 
discriminate too carefully between the forces of nature and the 
will of God. Is man responsive to no extraneous impulse — 



28 A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 

the proud possessor of free-will uninfluenced by the forces of 
nature? The study of biological sciences has emphasized in a 
hundred ways, the old statement, whose truth we never accept, 
that man is an animal. He may be made in the image of God, 
he may have within him a portion of the divine word which 
was in the beginning with God, but he is an animal, and has 
not thrown off all such characteristics and will not while he 
remains man. As an animal he is under the reign of law. 
More correctly — he acts in response to forces over which free- 
agency has only speculative control. And even in his higher 
work of state-building there is something of the same domina- 
tion of instinct that we notice when a colony of beavers builds 
its marvelous dwellings and prepares its simple state. 

The institutions of the Englishman have been especially 
studied and we can trace the evolutionary development in them 
with especial assurance. The growth of an English state has 
been steadily in response to a simple impulse of widening. 
Scattered here and there over the face of Germany we catch 
sight of little communities of self-governing men. They con- 
trol their simple lives by simple regulations. Each centre of 
life, each bit of protoplasm is ready to give up a portion of its 
life-service to the whole while it remains an individual cell. 
By a process of assimilation these ganglionic centers unite in a 
larger whole and these again form a more complicated state. 
All the way, there is a retention of individual life and partial 
autonomy while the organization of the whole widens and 
deepens. This process is reproduced in Britain, when the 
English people leave their old homes by the Elbe for new ones 
by the Thames and Southampton Water. Four centuries are 
needed for this process of aggregation and agglomeration to 
produce unified England — retaining its protoplasmic life, its old 



CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. 29 

Germanic spirit. In America the same controlling laws of 
state-growth have operated from the beginning. When the 
fathers met at Philadelphia to perform that last great act of 
aggregation by bringing into a conjunctive whole the autono- 
mous groups of: people, they were not aware that their work 
was a step in development, a part of a natural process, that 
great forces of Aryan nation-building were making use of their 
so-called free-wills to bring about a great and glorious consum- 
mation in the widening of the state. I have spoken of the 
Philadelphia convention as the last great act. But what reas- 
on have we to think it will be the last? Why should there be 
a cessation of that process of extension. England and Ameri- 
ca can arbitrate. Canada and America can reciprocate. The 
day has come when one of the wisest and truest men in our 
public life stands ready to say that a war between England and 
the United States would be a step backward in civilization. Is 
the time at infinite distance when there will be another step in 
this process of aggregation? 

So far I have been offering random suggestions of the 
work of God in history, maintaining that the great process of 
nation-building is a natural process under the impulses of God, 
and that man, though a free-agent, works in response to great 
natural forces, which in the brute creation we call instinct. I 
have declared that in the formation of the United States we 
saw one of the last great steps in the Teutonic process of aggre- 
gation. In discussing the work of God in history, I have some 
difficulty in differentiating it from the work of Him who was 
in the beginning with God. But we know that through reve- 
lation in Christ there will be and is a gradual unfolding of 
truth, as man works up to it, and we must expect to find it in 
time — iu history. This unfolding of truth, this discovery, 



30 A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 

more and more, of the relations of man to man and of man to 
God, is the working out of Christianity in history. When one, 
by action, fully realizes himself in his relations, he is doing his 
full duty. Even then there may be duty following duty as 
relations change, for Christian force is unfolding truth, and 
until all truth is kaown there is work for the forces of Chris- 
tianity. 

How have the great truths of God been especially revealed 
in the history of the United States? or, to put the question in 
another way, how has there been progress toward a full appre- 
ciation of conditions and relations? How has man come to be 
a truer and wiser actor in society? How has that society risen 
to higher and nobler life, widening in the process of the suns? 

I have already suggested that the history of the United 
States began long before the discovery of America. The forces 
that were operating two thousand years ago and more have 
simply displayed their grander vigor in the last hundred years. 
As some one has said that modern history began with the call- 
ing of Abraham, so one may be fully justified in saying that 
the Germania of Tacitus is the first work on American history, 
Let us adopt, however, the conventional definition of Ameri- 
can history. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were a 
number of settlements scattered along the Atlantic coast. Each 
was developing in response to the Anglo Saxon instinct. But 
each was leading its individual life. Contrariety and diversity 
were more noticeable than harmony. The life of each colony 
was largely shaped by the topography of the country; for man 
had not yet the skill or the opportunity to rise above his envi- 
ronment. The history of our colonial period, what was it? 
what does it mean? It can be studied along two lines, and 



CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. 31 

these two lines will eventually meet to form one. We see on 
one hand the growth of the spirit of self-assertion, of independ- 
ence and self-government in the colony, on the other the drift 
toward union and aggregation. These endless, tiresome bick- 
erings between the assemblies and the governors have their 
meaning. They indicate an effort to throw off the incubus of 
extraneous influence and domination. If the American people 
were to do their work in the world they needed to become self- 
determinate. Self-determination does not mean anarchy; it 
means freedom; by freedom is meant not lawlessness, but easy, 
pliable obedience to the forces of God in the world as they are 
revealed — their revelation is the expression of Christianity. 
A nation is free which is in perfect accord with the ivill of God 
and has risen to such self-control, such freedom from the load of 
sin that it acts in the direction of its own highest good — or, to 
repeat, is in full accord with the will and purposes of God. 
" And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free." A nation is developing freedom which is casting off 
extraneous restraint and is learning to govern itself, is coming 
to that stage of self-control and self-restraint which is the con- 
dition precedent of freedom. A man is not free who is not 
able to put himself in line with the forces of nature and take 
advantage of her laws. Will a man boast of his freedom in 
such language as this: " I know nothing of electricity, of the 
laws of its expansion. I am unable to make use of it. I don't 
understand how. I won't learn how. I shall do as I want to. 
I am a free agent." Would there not be more sense in this : 
" I am a free man because I have learned how to put myself 
in touch with the forces of nature; I have studied her laws; I 
can work with her; I find that she is ready to serve me if I 
know her speech and mind it." Now any one who sees in 



61 A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 

colonial history the evolution of anarchy and not of order — 
.self -order— is a man who believes that democracy is chaos and 
not the coalition of individual atoms into a compact, consistent 
whole, in which, because of its structure, its natural structure, 
the forces of God have free-play — freer and freer as the 
democratic state is ever more naturally, harmoniously and rea- 
sonably constituted. With such a man I have not time to 
argue. He is the slave of a dead conception. 

Our colonial life must be traced along lines of developing 
-sympathy. Democracy without sympathy i- a tinkling cymbal. 
The selfish colonist loses his particularistic tendencies. Pat- 
riotism is begotten within him. When the Boston Port bill is 
passed, the cavalier of Virginia and the puritan of Massachu- 
setts have a common cause. The rough back-woodsman of 
western Pennsylvania sends over the mountains his wagon-load 
of flour to the poor of the beleaguered city. Such sympathy 
- i > the heart-throbs of a new nation — a nation whose _ y- 
erning principle is and must be brotherly love, democracy ever 
growing into fuller and riper Christian fellowship. 

When the American people entered upon their career as 
an independent nation this process of fusion was not complete. 
There was a nation, but it was in its infancy in every sense. 
More truly, the hold of state on state was still fragile, of man 
on man was feeble. Our history from July 4. 1776, as before 
that date, is a process of hardening and strengthening these 
ties — of deepening and broadening sympathy. For the first 
thirteen years after independence was declared the struggle 
was a sharp one. Would the forces of disintegration overcome 
the force of integration — would selfishness overcome Christian 
brotherhood? Out of and because of this struggle there rosea 
higher and better state. When the articles of Confederation 



CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. 33 

were adopted they included the historical falsehood that each 
state retained its sovereignty. But the force of the national 
life would not have it so. In speaking of American history 
Ave almost irresistably talk in terms of law. The legal contro- 
versies of a century have shaped our speech and even moulded 
our thought. But let us cast to one side the mere human 
forms whereby man tries to direct the forces of nature, and let 
ns see the situation. Through that critical storm-and-stress 
period of our history the forces of dissolution and of integration 
were striving together. Disintegration, dissolution, death, 
constitute the fruits of sin. Christianity is brotherhood, is 
union, is a complete and full co-operation, is life and move- 
ment as the truth is unfolded and duty becomes more clear. 
The constitution was formed. Lawyers, historians, logicians, 
have striven and argued. Was it formed by the states? Was 
it formed by the people? Was it a mere confederation? Was 
it a fundamental law? Never mind. It was a fuller expression 
of the national will. The old confederation was a lie. It con- 
tracted the national spirit, till bonds were burst asunder and 
the truth was put in its place. There then came into existence 
adequate machinery for the expression of the national life — 
God-given. 

The fiction of the lawyer is convenient. ' ' All was decided 
by the constitution. There is the form of government. Thus 
must national life express itself." But the struggle was only 
begun. Our history from 1789, as before, has been a process 
of adjustment. A huudred years have gone by, and in that 
hundred years there has been growth to compactness, to one- 
ness, to wholeness. I am not talking of law. I am not 
attempting to form any theory about the place of deposit of 
certain sovereign powers or questioning how they should be 



34 A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 

exercised. The past hundred years through stress and struggle 
have brought into existence a higher union and a fuller nation- 
al life. . Long our state was attacked by the disease which 
endangered its whole existence. If it could not throw it off, 
retrogression and dissolution were the logical results. In oue 
mighty throe of agony, slavery was forever cast out. It left a 
scar on the body politic that only time can heal. But the vic- 
tory was won. This was the momentous victory for Christian- 
ity and brotherhood in every sense — not that alone four mill- 
ions of slaves were taken from the bondage of serfdom, but 
North and South were now to be welded together in firmer 
compact, to realize together the life which neither section could 
realize alone. 

The teachings of the seventy-five years of struggle, which 
ended with the surrender of Appomattox, are important. A 
great and enlightened people insisted that by a line on a piece 
of parchment they were protected in keeping to themselves a 
sin which the modern world will not tolerate. The forces of 
Christendom were leveled against it. These forces of Christen- 
dom — these /influences, some of them seemingly very material, 
which emanate from the states of the modern world — are they 
not the forces of Christianity expressing themselves in a thous- 
and ways? Whence could they come had not the life of the 
state been shaping itself, unconciously perhaps, in response to 
the great force of- God? Modern Christendom will not tolerate 
commercial monasticism. The South was not allowed to say: 
" This taint is my own. I build up my own industrial life. I 
care not for the moral denunciation of the modern world or the 
cold shoulder of trade." But the cold shoulder of trade was 
powerful. The drift of modern civilization has not been 
toward the domination of man over man, but of man over 



CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. 35 

nature; and the South with slavery, that expression of ancient 
civilization where man's greatest aim was the conquest of man 
by man, was left hopelessly behind in the unfolding of modern 
life. In spite of herself she reached out for the conflict. She 
was vanquished, for she had been beaten before she began to 
fight. The organic life of the American nation would not and 
could not suffer the disorganization that sprang from secession. 

Abraham Lincoln has been called the embodiment of true 
American greatness. He belongs with the great men of all 
time, with the world's great men, and why? — because of his 
mental acumen, his human sympathy, his Christian benevo- 
lence? All these and ten times more. He was a great men of 
all the ages, because through him flowed and became all-pow- 
erful the life of the modern world — because he of all men was 
chosen as the representative, the embodiment or — better par- 
haps — the channel for the floods of Christian force in state- 
craft. The great men of the world are not the men who strug- 
gle with Herculean power against the unrestrainable drift of 
life, no matter what their moral purpose, no matter what their 
mental vigor. When judged by history success is a prime 
requisite for greatness. "How necessary is success!" said 
Kossuth as he stood by the tomb of Washington. The great 
men of the world have been the channels of God's irresistible 
force in the work of evolution of a higher and better civiliza- 
tion. As we study the life and work of Lincoln we may 
especially see the forces of Christianity in United States history 
— union, sympathy, self-control, wisdom, good-fellowship, 
faith, hope, aud charity. Abraham Lincoln. was not an exotic. 

So much for the process of unification which seems the 
first great process at work in American history. He who 
studies American history with a contrary conception will lose, 



3(5 A. C. MCLAUGHLIN. 

I believe, the key to its secrets. The second phase of Ameri- 
can history, the growth of democracy, is intimately connected 
with the facts we have just considered. Separation and con- 
trariety I conceive to be a difficulty for America beyond other 
States becouse we have more fully realized harmonious state- 
hood in representative democracy. The old cry that democ- 
racies must fly to pieces sooner or later — how absurd! The 
perfect democracy will present a welded, indissoluble whole, 
natural and hence permanent. 

Let us accept the assertion that man can develop not as 
an isolated being but as a member of the whole! As one of 
many, he does the work of Christ. Christ demands above all 
not alone the purification of the soul of man but the action 
which, in itself, constitutes love. "And this is love, that ye 
walk after his commandments." (Second Epistle of John, 6.) 
The perfect law of Christ is the golden rule. One must love 
his neighbor as himself. Pure democracy is the embodiment 
of Christianity because the perfect law of democracy is the per- 
fect law of Christ. Now, I do not wish to assert that we have 
reached that perfect democracy, where all will stand firm in the 
perfect freedom which springs from the law of Christ; but I do 
maintain that this force has been at work in our history. 
There have been contradiction and misconception, but the prog- 
ress has been inevitable. Jefferson, the great father of A_mer- 
ican democracy, often taught individualism and disintegration. 
His teachings mean dissolutiou, not democracy. But the 
nation has sloughed off the falsity of Jefferson's work and 
teaching and has built the truth into its life. For while he 
was teaching individualism he was also actually demanding 
scope for individuality. He was preaching the dignity of man. 
He w r as protesting against the law and the custom which would 



CHRISTIANITY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY. 37 

subject the state to the domination of the few. He was teach- 
ing growth, free and natural progress, room for thought. 
Against the tightening bands of modern life which were ever 
forcing into a compacter whole the elements of the state, he 
could make little headway. But through Jefferson came the 
demand for wholesome, natural development of the parts. 
Individuality is not contrary to, but the mere obverse side of 
democracy. By working for a natural state, which would suf- 
fer the natural progress of man, he was demanding that our 
country put itself into harmony with the forces of God and the 
teachings of Christ. 

In studying the history of the United States we are wont 
to limit ourselves to changes in its law. We are content with 
watching what we call its political life. But we ought not to 
forget that only a minute fraction of the life of a people is 
shown by its laws and its outward changes of government. The 
broad sweeping stream of society whirls on, making its own 
channels with little deference to the rigid sluice-ways of artifi- 
cial law. In numberless ways the social life of the community 
finds expression without the aid of statute or constitution. A 
thorough study of American history would show in its fulness 
this onward surge of American life, and in it all we would see, 
I am sure, the forceful presence of Christianity. American 
materialism has an ugly sound, but it signifies in essence that 
the American man has been wresting her secrets from nature, 
that daily he is making her serve him, that he is coming to a 
mastery of his environment that will enable him to master him- 
self; and in the complete freedom which comes from a mastery 
of self is the perfect liberty of Christ. American materialism 
means the continuous discovery of truth, and this is progress- 
ive Christianity. American materialism has unified and diver- 



38 A. (J. MCLAUGHLIN. 

sified the national life and has given the greatest impetus yet 
seen in the history of the world toward that broad foundation 
for the unity of mankind which is the forerunner of the king- 
dom of God. The force of commerce is not of evil — if it is we 
are in the hand of Satan. Trade has opened the arteries of the 
continent and the life-blood of the nation sweeps from sea to 
sea. Trade has bound the nations together in a sympathetic 
life, which is Christian in its breadth. Compare it with the 
selfish life of the ancient world, and you will realize that 
humanity is engaged on a nobler field. The Jews may have 
no dealings with the Samaritans, but the intelligent Christian 
calls no man unclean. 

The study of American history furnishes poor food for 
pessimism. The end of the ninteenth century sees a truer 
national life, a deeper sense of public justice, a more profound 
faith in man and his destiny under God. He who studies the 
life of the nation in its tottering infancy will not quail at the 
sight of the dangers which surround its manhood. Nothing is 
more evident to the student than the strength, the manliness, 
the tone of the American public. I do not close my eyes to 
abuses in office, to the presence of brazen-faced wrong in the 
marts of trade. But the steady throb of America's heart is 
sending through her veins a strong flood of pure live-giving 
blood. She will cast off the curse of ignorance and of vice 
that will endeavor to to throttle her, and will give ever freer 
expression to the common will and public conscience. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ON THE 
GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY. 



PROF. JOHN C. HOLFE. 



Delivered April 30, 1893. 



At the period in which the life of the Savior falls, the 
entire civilized world, from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, 
from the Rhine to the deserts of Africa, owned the sway of 
Rome. This circumstance in itself, the union of the nations 
under one head, with one official language, was favorable to 
the spread of the new faith; for there was but one govern- 
ment to contend with, and communication between remote 
parts of the earth was rendered easy. 

But we have additional reason for congratulating our- 
selves, that the universal conqueror, to which the other na- 
tions had one after the other succumbed, was none other than 
Rome. What the result would have been if the various peo- 
ples of antiquity had been able to follow out their develop- 
ment in their own way, without coming into conflict with each 
other, can only be a matter of conjecture; but an examination 
of the records of history leads us to the conclusion that if it 
was inevitable that one nation should conquer and absorb the 
rest, we have reason to rejoice that the victory fell to a people 
who were able to make such good use of it. 

The Greeks, with their eager desire for knowledge and 
love of the beautiful, may rouse our sympathies and win our 
hearts; but Greece never advanced bevond the idea of the 



40 J. C. ROLFE. 

city as the unit of polity, and besides her great men showed 
their weakness and lack of self-control when in the possession 
of unrestrained power. Themistoeles, Pausanias, and Alexan- 
der illustrate this national failing, and the speedy dismember- 
ment of the great Macedonian's empire after the death of its 
founder, shows how unfitted the Greek was by nature for 
universal dominion. Even had it been possible for some one 
of the Greek cities to gain and to maintain supremacy over 
the rest of the world, we cannot feel that such a sovereignty 
would have benefited mankind. To judge by the conduct of 
Athens as head uf the Confederacy of Delos, it would have 
meant the aggrandizement of the capital at the expense of the 
rest of the empire. 

Very different was the policy of Rome; from the Tagus 
to Palmyra the remains of roads, bridges, aqueducts, theatres 
and temples testify to her efforts to bind together the hetero- 
geneous elements of her empire, and to improve and advance 
her provinces. 

Xor does the history of Rome's great rival across the 
Mediterranean lead us to wish that the result of Zama had 
been different, and that 'the sordid race of Tyre' had taken the 
place of the Romans as lords of the earth. Indeed, from the 
point of view of the best interests of mankind, there is no na- 
tion whose defeat and conquest by Rome should cause us re- 
gret; the very weaknesses which cut short the careers of her 
rivals made their success undesirable. 

Not that the Romans were perfect; faults they had in 
abundance, but their national characteristics eminently fitted 
them for their great mission, to unite and closely bind to- 
gether the nations under one head, and so prepare the way for 
the spread of the new faith. 



INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ON CHRISTIANITY. 41 

Let us consider briefly the origin and early history of this 
great people, to determine, if possible, what its national char- 
acteristics were, and how they favored the perpetuation of the 
Christian religion. 

The beginnings of Rome were small. The seven hills be- 
side the Tiber appear to have been originally the rallying- 
place of the lowlanders against their highland neighbors, in 
that contest so often repeated in the history of the world. 
Sorrounded from the first by hostile and powerful peoples, 
more advanced than itself in most lines of human activity, the 
little settlement seemed very unlikely to be the cradle of a 
mighty empire; but the very difficulties of the situation 
favored the future greatness of the race. 

As we may infer from the legends of early Rome, which, 
though not history, have been made by modern research to 
throw much light on the prehistoric period, the seven hills 
were originally occupied by several different communities. 
This fact is an important one to bear in mind in tracing the 
development of the commonwealth; from its origin the Roman 
state consisted of an amalgamation of different communities, 
and the principle of association formed the foundation of its 
greatness, and influenced the development of its institutions. 

Situated on a navigable river, within easy reach of the 
sea, yet far enough away to be safe from the pirates who in 
those early days infested the Mediterranean, the new city grew 
rapidly. By the commercial enterprise of the inhabitants, it 
had attained considerable wealth and importance in very early 
times, as is shown by the surviving monuments of the regal 
period, which are constructed on too grand a scale to have 
been the work of the citizens of an insignificant town. 

Encompassed as they were by hostile nations, composed in 



42 J. C. EOLFE. 

many cases of men who appear to have been their superiors in 
individual strength and prowess, the Komans were obliged to 
rely for their preservation on superior discipline and organiza- 
tion, and to subordinate the interests of the individual to the 
good of the state. Discipline, as has often been pointed out, 
was the secret of Rome's success; just as in the athletic con- 
tests of our own time 'team-play', the harmonious action of 
individuals as one body, triumphs over stronger but less per- 
fectly organized opponents 

This conclusion is supported by the early legends. We 
find no great national hero, whose valor or military genius 
leads to victory and conquest. There is no Roman Achilles, 
nor even a Pyrrhus or a Hannibal. We read of senators 
called from the plough to the command of legions, of fathers 
who put their sons to death because they disobeyed their gene- 
ral's orders. The worthies of old Roman story typify disci- 
pline; they were plain men, of moderate ability, but of ster- 
ling integrity, and full of devotion to the interests of their 
country. The knowledge of arms of Pyrrhus and Hannibal at 
first triumphed over them, but Rome's citizen-soldiers always 
gained the victory as last. 

But the conduct of Rome after a victory, which was due 
to the circumstances of her origin, had a no less important 
bearing on her progress than the victories themselves. Her 
leaders were not professional soldiers, but statesmen who were 
led to take the field by necessity. They often made poor 
generals, but they knew how to make a wise use of the victor- 
ies which they finally won. 

Wherever the Romans conquered, they founded colonies, 
and their colonies were not, like those of Greece, independent 
of the mother city, nor like those of many modern nations, a 



INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ON CHRISTIANITY. 43 

source of weakness and a point of atttack in time of war: but 
closely welded to the state they were veritable 'bulwarks of 
the commonwealth.' How wonderfully successful the Ro- 
mans were in this respect is shown by the conduct of her 
colonies during that dark period when Hannibal swept like a 
storm over the fertile plains of Italy. In the field army after 
army succumbed to his generalship, but all his art could not 
induce the allies to forsake the Roman cause. 

By thus dealing with the widely different nations which 
surrounded her, the Etruscans, the Samnites, the Greeks, and 
the Gauls, Rome learned the lessons which fitted her to rule 
the world, and developed the institutions and characteristics 
which were to have so important an influence on the destinies 
of the human race. 

Of these institutions two had a far-reaching effect on the 
growth of Christianity, the Roman law and the Roman re- 
ligion . 

While in most cases it was the service of Rome to per- 
petuate and hand down to us the results reached by others, the 
Roman law was an original creation, whose development was 
greatly influenced by the early days of the nation. A state 
which is composed from the outset of different elements must 
cast aside tradition, and make its laws for the common good, 
on the principles of abstract justice, in order to deal equitably 
by all classes of citizens. 

That the Romans very soon busied themselves with the 
solution of this problem, we may infer from the early legends, 
which represent Romulus, Numa, and Servius Tullius as legis- 
lators. The result was a code, which though at first of inex- 
orable severity, was generally recognized as just, and hence 
attained the sacredness which onlv such law can have. Dur- 



44 J. C. ROLFE. 

iog the whole of the bitter struggle between the patricians and 
the plebeians this feeling towards the law was manifest. 
There was no bloodshed, secession from the community was 
the only .refuge of the oppressed, and the separate steps by 
which the plebeians gained their rights were taken in due legal 
form by the regular passage of successive rogations. 

During the Republican era the law passed through a pro- 
cess of liberalization and humanization, and finally, through 
the Code of Justinian, became the basis of the law of all civilized 
nations. "Every one of us," says I hue, "is benefitted directly 
or indirectly by this legacy of the Roman people, a legacy as 
valuable as the literary and artistic models which we owe to 
the great sculptors and writers of Greece." 

The influence of the spirit of the Roman law on the Latin 
Church and the Latin theology may clearly be traced. The 
organization of the Church was a reproduction, on higher 
lines, of that of the old Roman commonwealth, and such an 
organization was of the highest importance to the existence of 
the new faith. As Milman says, "The life and death of 
Christianity depended on the rise of such a power. It is im- 
possible to conceive what had been the confusion, the lawless- 
ness, the chaotic state of the Middle Ages without mediaeval 
papacy . ' ' 

Not less significant for the early history of Christianity 
were the peculiarities of the Roman religion. This was not 
inspiration; the unimaginative Roman developed no mythol- 
ogy, and his pantheon bore the stamp of his political organiza- 
tion and of the legal bent of his mind. The relation of man 
and his god was that of debtor and creditor. He struck a bar- 
gain with the deities, offering faithful service in exchange for 
protection and all the good things of life. The relation was 



INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ON CHRISTIANITY. 45 

purely legal, and all the subtleties of the law could be em- 
ployed by either of the contracting parties. Each was bound 
to carry out his part of the contract with scrupulous exactness; 
but if the man could take advantage of his god, by substituting 
the letter for the spirit of the law, it was perfectly proper for 
him to do so: and we are told that the pious Nuraa outwitted 
Jupiter himself, and offered bloodless instead of human sacri- 
fices. 

But on the other hand, in dealing with a superior being, 
of far greater power and knowledge than himself, the mortal 
must be careful not to run the risk of being overreached him- 
self. He must strive to be letter perfect in all his prayers and 
ceremonials, since a mistake in a single word, or the omission 
of a single form, made his devotions of no avail. 

Such a religion, with its multiplicity of deified abstrac- 
tions, with its excessive formalism, naturally failed to impress 
the mind with reverence and awe, or to satisfy man's natural 
craving for a superior power to bow to and lean on for protec- 
tion. After looking in vain to the religions of other nations 
for this missing element, the educated classes turned to the 
speculations of Greek philosophy; while the vulgar, longing 
for the mysterious and the awful, became the prey of soothsay- 
ers, fortune-tellers, and religious quacks of all nationalities. 

Not a few also, as we may judge from the precepts of 
Seneca, which, as is well known, correspond in a striking way 
to those of St. Paul, had an innate desire for a nobler and 
purer life. 

Thus at the dawn of Christianity lack of faith in the ex- 
isting theology, and the failure of all known creeds to satisfy 
men, made the times ripe for a true religion. The Christian 
view of the life after death must have been especially attrac- 



46 J. C. HOLFE. 

tive; nothing is more melancholy than the utter lack of hope- 
fulness regarding the hereafter which is manifested by the 
beautiful Attic sepulchral reliefs and the grave-inscriptions 
of pagan Rome. Caesar's celebrated speech during the trial 
of Catiline's fellow conspirators is an index of the feeling of 
cultivated men of the epoch; while Constantine's words before 
the Council of Mc?ea show the change which Christianity had 
wrought. 

The people turned eagerly to a faith which offered forgive- 
ness of sins and an eternal life to great and lowly alike, and the 
converts were not only from among the wretched and op- 
pressed; within a century all parts of the empire, and all 
classes of society, were represented in the growing Church. 

Another feature of the Roman religion which was impor- 
tant for the early history of the Church, was the tolerance 
which characterized it from the beginning. To such a religion 
tolerance was easy; it was even a necessity. No war was 
ever waged by the state against religion. It was considered 
the duty of a foreigner to worship his own gods when in 
Rome; and just as the inhabitants of a conquered town might 
be enrolled among the Roman citizens, so their gods were often 
formally naturalized and became members of the Roman the- 
ogony. In any case all established religions were tolerated 
and even protected. 

So long, therefore, as Christianity was regarded as a sect 
of the Jews, it was unmolested. When, however, it became 
clear that they had no connection with the Jews, the Chris- 
tians fell under suspicion as members of one of those secret so- 
cieties or clubs, which, since they were usually of a political 
character, were regarded as a menace to the state. 

Christianity was therefore unassailed at a very critical 



INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ON CHRISTIANITY. 47 

period in its growth; and when the persecutions finally came, 
they were powerless to extirpate a faith which had permeated 
the entire empire. The persecutions themselves were political 
rather than religious in their nature. Oftentimes they were 
due to the caprice or depravity of the emperor or his advisors, 
often to purely political considerations; and their results were 
rather to strengthen than to weaken the Church. Men were 
led to ask themselves what power it could be which gave the 
martyrs such firmness under the most fearful tortures; and in- 
quiry made them converts. Thus the Church grew in num- 
bers and in strength until finally it became the state religion, 
and found in the Roman empire a potent instrument for the 
propagation of its beliefs. 

The art and music of the early Church also owed much to 
Rome, for although she originated nothing in those lines, she 
performed an inestimable service in preserving the sculpture, 
painting, and music of the Greeks. The influence of Grseeo- 
Roman art on the early Christian art is very marked. In the 
crude paintings of the catacombs w T e see the familiar person- 
ages and legends of the old mythology used to illustrate bibli- 
cal story. Hermes bearing a goat on his shoulder, an old Greek 
type, appears as the good shepherd; Arion and the dolphin, as 
Jonah and the whale. Orpheus charming the wild beasts by 
his divine music readily represents Daniel in the den of lions; 
while Odysseus bound to the mast, in order to escape the al- 
lurements of the Sirens, depicts the Church triumphantly 
passing through the temptations of the world. 

The Roman music, too, which was borrowed from the Greek, 
had an important influence on that of the early Church; while 
a survey of the patristic literature show T s the immense value 
of the Latin language as a means of spreading the faith. 



48 J. C. ROLFE. 

In conclusion it may be said that in the growth of the 
Roman empire from its cradle on the Palatine Hill we trace 
the rise of a means of fosteriug and perpetuatiDg the Christian 
religion, such as could not have been devised by the wisest 
human counsels, such as we are forced to believe must have 
been planned by an all- wise and far-seeing Providence from 
the foundation of the world. 



II. 

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY. 



CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 



PROF. H. C ADAMS. 



Delivered April 3, 1893. 



John I, 1-10. 

The question upon which you have asked me to speak 
might be considered in either of two ways. One form of treat- 
ment calls for a historical survey of the centuries which have 
passed since the teachings of Jesus began to exert a positive 
influence upon the social and political character of the West- 
ern Avorld; the other form of treatment, which is analytic 
rather than historical, inquires respecting the real nature of 
the influence which the teachings of Jesus exert, and endeavors 
to measure the extent to which they are now potent, to discov- 
er the agencies which oppose their full efficiency, and to learn 
bow a consistent disciple to the Great Master should conduct 
himself as a member of political and industrial society in our 
nineteenth century. I have chosen to follow the second of the 
methods suggested, partly because in this manner I shall be 
able to avoid many questions that are in dispute among stu- 
dents of religious history, and partly becouse I am sure an 
inquiry into Christian conduct will be of greater assistance to 
those who are earnestly endeavoring to follow the law of Christ 
through the intricate relations of modern life, than any histor- 
ical survey of the Gesta Christi of the past. 

The first reflection that presents itself comes in the form of 
an inquiry. Is it true that the rule of Christian living is more 



52 H. C. ADAMS. 

difficult to follow at the present time than in former centuries? 
I think it is. Life itself is more complex than formerly; one's 
conduct touches a larger circle of neighbors than ever before; 
the final results of what one chooses to do are with greater dif- 
ficulty ascertained than when society was local in character and 
simple in habit. Especially is this true when applied to bus- 
iness conduct, and on this account it seems peculiarly difficult 
for a man immersed in business to follow that simple rule 
which Jesus laid down as a test of the true life. 

But what is the rule which the founder of the Christian 
religion accepted as the rule of right conduct and what is there 
peculiar in its application to the commercial spirit of our time? 

The life of Jesus has always appeared to me to separate 
itself from the life of every other man with whom history has 
made us acquainted in that he appreciated most clearly the lib- 
erties and duties of his fellow-men. He possessed in a degree 
which makes his character unique the ability to recognize the 
two personalities which must always be taken into account, 
when any question of right or wrong presents itself for decision. 
He was always conscious of his own individuality, but never 
lost sight of that existence external to himself which, for want 
of a better name, we call society. Individual consciousness 
and social consciousness were to him equally real and equally 
potent, and all his judgments were such as to effect a perfect 
balance between the claims of egoism and altruism. 

I remember to have once listened to an explanation by a 
student of Browning of the poem entitled, " Fra Lippo Lippi." 
It is necessary, said he, in order to appreciate this writer, to 
understand in all its details the facts to which his poems refer, 
and to recognize that one side only of all conversations is pre- 
sented in the text; and the explanation of the poem referred to 



CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 53 

consisted in supplying the suppressed questions and replies of 
the persons with whom the hero of the poem conversed. To 
my mind, it is necessary to follow a mental j:>rocess quite anal- 
ogous to this, if we would understand the ethical teachings of 
Jesus. He always spoke as a judge who, before pronouncing 
judgment, or before laying down a rule of conduct, had listened 
to the special pleas of self-interest on the one hand, and of 
social interest on the other. Jesus, it is true, never undertook 
to explain the rules he laid down. He was content to assert 
the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and to say 
in simple language, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" 
for he well knew that what he said was to be accepted for all 
times and for all conditions. It is for us, whose decisions are 
confined to the age in which we live, to undertake the explana- 
tion of these rules of conduct; for, until we understand the 
principles upon which they rest, we cannot apply them to the 
practical problems which beset us, nor make Christianity a pos- 
itive force in society. 

It would be interesting to follow out in greater detail an 
analysis of the political principles which underlie the teach- 
ings of Jesus, for they disclose in every significant utterance 
the sense of dual personality which I have suggested. An 
application of them to the past eighteen centuries of history 
would show that the world has thus far failed to realize the 
teachings of Jesus because it has failed to appreciate the neces- 
sity of a just balance between the rights and duties of man 
considered individually and of men considered collectively. 
And of special interest would it be to consider the assertion 
sometimes made that the social philosophy of individualism, 
which has swayed the minds of men since the Reformation, is 
so far removed from the law of Jesus that it is impossible for 



54 H. C. ADAMS. 

the truest and highest Christian qualities to nourish under its 
influence. From these considerations, however, I turn aside 
and confine myself to one or two suggestions respecting the 
personal conduct of these who desire to see the Kingdom of 
Peace established on earth. 

The first thought which presents itself is the following: 
A true disciple of Jesus, by which I mean one who desires 
above all things else that Christianity should become a social 
force, positive, aggressive and directive in character, must 
assume the ethical teachings of Jesus as an unalterable premise 
in the discussion of every social, political, industrial, or per- 
sonal question. He is at liberty, like any one else, to discuss 
exjDedients if he confine the discussion to the minor premises 
of his reasoning; but his major premise which embodies at 
once the ideal of Christian society and the principles of Chris- 
tian conduct, is for him beyond discussion. As he is a Chris- 
tian, he has that within him which responds to the teachings of 
Jesus; as he is a man, he believes there is a cord in the breast 
of every other man which will respond when touched by a 
clear vision of the purity and beauty of the Christian ideal. 
He is obliged, therefore, to start in every discussion with the 
statement of the ethical rules which he accepts and to refuse 
discussion on any platform which does not admit those rules, 

The assertion of such a position is indeed far-reaching in 
its results. I once heard a course of lectures on free trade and 
protection. The speaker began by quoting from St. Paul: "If 
any provide not for his own, especially those of his own house, 
he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel,'' and 
proceeded to show that this precept was applicable to national 
policy and justified the United States in looking out for its 
own interests, even if in so doing it disregarded the interests of 



CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 55 

other peoples. I have nothing to say respecting the conclu- 
sions of the argument which followed, but the moral character 
of this argument was certainly unchristian. Indeed, if we 
accept the old definition that, " Blasphemy is to attribute to 
God what is contrary to his nature," the argument justifies a 
harsher name. Certainly Christianity is not a social force so 
far as this question is concerned, when the common arguments 
respecting it rest upon an unchristian premise. And yet this 
rule that every man shall confine his regard to his own interests 
rather than the rule of Christ, that each man should have an 
equal regard for his neighbor and for himself, is the one to 
which the social, political and commercial conduct of our day 
conforms. The infidelity of our century, and this is the only 
form of infidelity to be feared, is disbelief in the golden rule of 
conduct. If Christianity ever comes to exert a positive influ- 
ence in the direction of the affairs of men, it will be through 
the persistent assertion on the part of the disciples of Jesus 
that this rule is paramount, that it is universal in its applica- 
tion, and that every interest opposed to it is an unchristian 
interest. 

My second suggestion is one which unless carefully stated 
will surely lead to misapprehension. If you have followed me 
thus far in what I regard as simply the logical unfolding of the 
Christian principle of conduct, you will doubtless say to your- 
selves as the disciples of old once said to Jesus : ' ' This is a hard 
saying." It is indeed a hard saying when taken in connection 
with the facts of modern life, because it calls for conduct wholly 
at variance with the conduct of the great majority of men, and 
for decisions which, strictly adhered to, would exclude the 
Christian from many forms of business which promise business 
success. The same is true of political life and political meth- 



56 H. C. ADAMS. 

ods, although I do not think that departure from Christian 
teachings is as systematic in politics as in the business walks of 
life. In politics, at least so far as the acquirement of office is 
concerned, we hold to the theory of right conduct, any depar- 
ture from which we call corruption; and it should be further 
noted that inasmuch as the principle of publicity is applied to 
political affairs, disregard of right conduct is more likely to be 
made known. This in large measure explains why corruption 
in political affairs impresses itself more strongly upon us. 
Occasionally a man comes to the front in political life who 
cares more for the method by which success is acquired than 
for success itself, and the fact that he is sure to find a constit- 
uency, although sometimes a small one, shows our political 
aims to be purer than our business motives. In business life a 
man never secures a constituency because he holds to moral 
rules in the management of his affairs, but rather because he 
can furnish cheaper goods than his rivals. If you look care- 
fully into the matter you will, I think, admit that the principle 
underlying business conduct is unchristian in character. It 
has no regard to the justice of traDsactions but to the legality 
of transactions. It does not, as in political affairs, still hold to 
the ideal of purity, but owing probably to the greater complex- 
ity of business relations, it has fitted its ethical judgment to the 
requirements of existing law. Business conduct, therefore, is 
never as a rule more perfect than the law which enforces tech- 
nical honesty. As DeQuincey says, although his remark held 
in mind something different from the use I now make of it, 
"by daily use the ethics of a police office translate themselves 
insensibly into the ethics even of a religious people." 

Under such circumstances what is the true rule of Chris- 
tian conduct? I assume that the end held in view is not alone 



CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 57 

to develop character in the individual but to make the law of 
Christ a positive force in the direction and government of 
society. If this be accepted as the end to be attained, to limit 
ourselves to exhortation is to render the accomplishment of our 
purpose forever impossible; for it must not be forgotten that we 
live in a society adjusted to the requirements of competition, 
and that in such a society men who produce goods most cheap- 
ly, no matter what methods they may have adopted to attain 
cheapness, will gain our patrouage. This is true because it is 
practically impossible for purchasers to know the conditions 
under which goods are produced, and to confine their purchases 
to the men who, as producers, follow the rules which justice 
and equity require. This, perhaps, was possible when society 
was simple and local in character, as for example, in England 
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; it is, however, 
impossible now that industrial conditions are cosmopolitan and 
complex. In the fact thus brought to our notice do Ave find an 
explanation of the curious paradox, that the more effective the 
persuasion of religious teachers who confine their teaching to 
exhortation, and who devote all their energies to persuade men 
to live rightly, the more rapid will be the deterioration of bus- 
iness society. " For, since the result of such persuasion must 
be a renunciation by men of delicate consciences of the great 
business opportunities, society will tend to take upon itself the 
moral tone of the most unscrupulous." This result, indeed, 
has already been reached. The actual business conduct of men 
at the present time is conformed to the rule of the Justinian 
digest, which says: " In purchase and sale it is naturally allow- 
ed to the contracting parties to try to over-reach each other," 
and in so doing disregards the rule of Christ, which says: 
"Whatever ye would that men should do to you do ye also 



00 H. C. ADAMS. 

unto them." The former is the heathen rule of conduct, the 
latter is the Christian rule of conduct, and it is not too much 
to say that in business affairs the commercial spirit of the nine- 
teenth century is essentially heathen. 

What then is the Christian business man to do? Can he 
renounce business? Nothing, to my mmd, deserves greater 
censure than such a suggestion. The life of the hermit is not 
the life which Jesus intended a man to live. A man may be 
selfish even in the pursuit of holiness, and consequently never 
attain holiness. But of more importance is the thought that 
one who withdraws from business affairs cannot hope to exert 
any influence upon them, and the theme we are discussing this 
morning is how the rule of Christian conduct may become a 
social force. It is, indeed, an exceedingly difficult role the 
Christian, as a business man, is called upon to assume. For, 
while holding strenuously to the highest law so far as faith is 
concerned, he is obliged to conform in large measure to the 
rules of conduct adopted by those with whom he has business 
dealings. He is obliged to accept moral dualism, not only as 
inevitable, but under the legal conditions and commercial cus- 
toms of the times, as in the highest degree moral. What 
makes him a follower of Jesus is not his refusal to recognize 
that in a business transaction, "each contracting party tries to- 
over-reach the other," but his recognition that this is at variance 
with the law of Christ. He is justified in protecting his own 
interests by the methods which the law calls honest; but if he 
be a Christian he will assign to himself, as the highest aim of 
life, the task of doing what he may to so change laws and mod- 
ify customs that the old Christian conception of a just price, 
and the modern Christian conception of equal opportunities for 
all, may become a realized fact. Not until then will the neces- 



CHRISTIANITY AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 59 

sity for moral dualism pass away, and not until then can the 
law of Christ exert its full influence as a social force and 
bestow all the blessings of which it is capable. 

I am painfully aware of the imperfect manner in which I 
have presented to you what is suggested in this paper, and I 
appreciate fully how dangerous it is to advocate dualism in 
matters of conduct; all I ask is that you consider this sugges- 
tion carefully, and should it meet your approval, and should 
you purpose to carry it with you into the busy lives that await 
you, that you apply it with that conscientious care which 
marks a lover of truth. 



CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY. 



PKOF. JOHN DEWEY. 



Delivered March 20, 1892. 



Looked at from the outside, a religion seems to be a cult 
and a body of doctrine. It seems to be a cult; that is, a col- 
lection of specific acts to be performed, and of special ideas to 
be cherished in consciousness. The acts, the cult, may be 
more or less prescribed, more or less detailed, more or less 
formal, but some special acts there must be. It is these acts 
which have religious meaning, which are worship, while other 
acts are outside the pale, are secular, or profane, commercial 
or merely moral — they are not communion with God. So, 
too, the dogmas, the doctrine, may be more or less narrow, 
more or less rigid, but it seems there must be some special 
body of ideas set up and apart as belonging to the religious 
consciousness, while other ideas are scientific, or artistic, or 
industrial. This is the appearance. Research into the origin 
and development of religion destroys the appearance. It is 
shown that every religion has its source in the social and intel- 
lectual life of a community or race. Every religion is an 
expression of the social relations of the community; its rites, 
its cult, are a recognition of the sacred and divine significance 
of these relationships. The religion is an expression of the 
mental attitude and habit of a people; it is its reaction, 
sesthetic and scientific, upon the world in which the people 
finds itself. Its ideas, its dogmas and mysteries are recogni- 



CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY. 61 

tions, in symbolic form, of the poetic, social and intellectual 
value of the surroundings. In time this significance, social 
and intellectual, is lost sight of; it is so thoroughly condensed 
in the symbols, the rites, the dogmas, that they seem to be the 
religion. They become an end in themselves. Thus separated 
from life they begin to decay; it seems as if religion were disin- 
tegrating. In reality, the very life, the very complexus of 
social and intellectual inter-actions which give birth to these 
forms, is already and continuously at work finding revelation 
and expression in more adequate relations and truths. 

If there is no religion which is simply a religion, least of 
all is Christianity simply a religion. Jesus had no cult or rite 
to impose; no specific forms of worship, no specific acts named 
religion. He was clear to the other side. He proclaimed this 
very setting up of special acts and institutions as part of the 
imperfections of life. "The hour cometh when ye shall 
neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the 
Father. . . The hour cometh and now is when true 

worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth'' — 
the hour when worship should be simply the free and truthful 
expression of man in his action. Jesus had no special doctrine 
to impose — no special set of truths labeled religions. " If any 
man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." "Ye 
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.'' The 
only truth Jesus knew of as religious was Truth. There were 
no special religious truths which He came to teach; on the con- 
trary, his doctrine was that Truth, however named and however 
divided by man, is one as God is one; that getting hold of 
truth and living by it is religion. Dr. Mulford in his "Re- 
public of God," holds that Christianity is not a religion at all, 
having no cult and no dogma of its own to mark it off from 



62 JOHN DEWEY. 

action and truth in general. The very universality of Chris- 
tianity precludes its being a religion. Christianity, Dr. Mul- 
ford contends, is not a religion but a revelation. 

The condition of revelation is that it reveal. Christianity, 
if universal, if revelation, must be the continuously unfolding, 
never ceasing discovery of the meaning of life. Revelation is 
the ascertaining of life. It canuot be more than this; it must 
be all of this. Christianity then cannot stand or fall with any 
special theory or mode of action with which men at a given 
time may choose to identify it. Christianity in its reality 
knows no such exclusive or sectarian attitude. If it be made 
to stand or fall with any special theory, historical or ethical, if 
it be identified with some special act, ecclesiastic or ceremonial, 
it has denied its basis and its destiny. The one claim that 
Christianity makes is that God is truth; that a« truth He is 
love and reveals Himself fully to man, keeping back nothing 
of himself; that man is so one with the truth thus revealed 
that it is not so much revealed to him as in him; he is its 
incarnation; that by the appropriation of truth, by identifica- 
tion with it, man is free; free negatively, free from sin, free 
positively, free to live his own life, free to express himself, 
free to play without let or limitation upon the instrument given 
him — the environment of natural wants and forces. As revel- 
ation, Christianity must reveal. The only tests by which it 
can be tried are the tests of fact — is there truth constantly 
ascertained and appropriated by man ? Does a life loyal to 
the truth bring freedom ? 

It is obvious that in other religions there is no great incon- 
sistency in the claim of certain men to be the special repre- 
sentatives of religion, insisting that there are certain specific 
ideas to be held, certain special acts to be performed, as relig- 



CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY. 63 

ions. No other religion has ever generalized its basis and its 
motive, apprehending the universality of truth, and its conse- 
quent self -revealing power to everyone. But in Christianity 
the attempt to fix religious truth once for all, to hold it within 
certain rigid limits, to say this and just this is Christianity, is 
self-contradictory. The revelation of truth must continue as 
long as life has new meanings to unfold, new action to propose. 
An organization may loudly proclaim its loyalty to Christianity 
and to Christ; but if, in asserting its loyalty, it assumes a cer- 
tain guardianship of Christian truth, a certain prerogative in 
laying down what is this truth, a certain exclusiveness in the 
administration of religious conduct, if in short the organization 
attempts to preach a fixity in a moving world and to claim a 
monopoly in a common world — all this is a sign that the real 
Christianity is now working outside of and beyond the organ- 
ization, that the revelation is going on in wider and freer 
channels. 

The historic organization called the church has just learned 
one lesson of this sort. There was a time when the church 
assumed the finality of its ideas upon the relations of God aud 
the world, and of the relations of nature and man. For cen- 
turies the visible church assumed that it was the guardian and 
administrator of truth in these matters. It not only strove 
against the dawning and rising science as false, but it called 
this science impious and anti-Christian, till science almost 
learned to call herself by the name so positively and contin- 
uously fixed upon her. But it turned out then as ever — truth 
exists not in word, but in power. As in the parable of the two 
sons, the one who boasted of his readiness to serve in the vine- 
yard went not, while the younger son who said he would not 
go, went out into the vineyard of nature and by obedience to 



64 JOHX DEWEY. 

the truth revealed the deeper truth of unity of law, the pres- 
ence of one continuous living force, the conspiring and vital 
unity of all the world. The revelation was made in what we 
term science. The revelation could not be interrupted on 
account of the faithlessness of the church, it pushed out in the 
new channel. 

Again, I repeat, revelation must reveal. It is not simply 
a question of the reality declared, it is also a question of com- 
prehension by him to whom the reality is declared. A Hiudoo 
religion, a Greek religion, might place its religious truths in 
mysteries which were not comprehended. A religion of revela- 
tion must uncover and discover; it must bring home its truth 
to the consciousness of the individual. Revelation undertakes, 
in a word, not only to state that the truth of things is such and 
such, it undertakes to give the individual organs for the truth, 
organs by which he can get hold of, can see and feel, the truth. 

To overlook this side of revelation is to keep the word 
but deny the fact. Of late, the theologians, as well as the 
philosophers, have been turning their guns upon agnosticism, 
the doctrine that God, and the fundamental realities of life, 
are hid from man's knowledge. What is true for one must be 
true for another, and if agnosticism is false, false also is the 
doctrine that revelation is the process by which an external 
God declares to man certain fixed statements about himself and 
the methods of His working. God is essentially and only 
the self-revealing, and the revelation is complete only as men 
come to realize Him. 

So much for the first part of my subject. Christianity is 
revelation, and revelation means effective discovery, the actual 
ascertaining or guaranteeing to man of the truth of his life and 
the reality of the Universe. 



CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY. 65 

It is at this point that the significance of democracy 
appears. The kingdom of God. as Christ said, is within us, 
or among us. The revelation is, and can be, only in intelli- 
gence. It is strange to hear men call themselves Christian 
teachers, and at the same time condemn the use of reason and 
of thought in relation to Christian truth. Christianity as 
revelation is not only to, it is in man's thought and reason. 
Beyond all other means of appropriating truth, beyond all 
other organs of apprehension, is man's own action. Man 
interprets the Universe in which he lives in terms of his own 
action at the given time. Had Jesus Christ made an absolute, 
detailed and explicit statement upon all the facts of life, that 
statement would not have had meaning — it would not have 
been revelation — until men began to realize in their own action 
the truth he declared — until they themselves began to live it. 
In final analysis, man's own action, his own life movement, is 
the only organ he has for receiving and appropriating truth. 
Man's action is found in his social relationships — the way in 
which he connects with his fellows. It is man's social organ- 
ization, the state in which he is expressing himself, which 
always has and always must set the form and sound the key- 
note to the understanding of Christianity. 

Jesus himself taught that the individual is free in his life 
because the individual is the organ of the absolute Truth of 
the Universe. I see no reason for believing that Jesus meant 
this in any but its most general sense; I do not see any reason 
for supposing that he meant that the individual is free simply 
in some one special direction or department; I do not see any 
reason for supposing that his teaching of truth's accessibility 
to man is to be taken in any unnatural or limited way. Yet 
the world to which these ideas were taught did not find itself 



66 JOHN DEWEY. 

free, and did not find the road to truth so straight and open. 
Slaveries of all sort abounded; the individual found himself 
enslaved to nature and to his fellows. He found ignorance 
instead of knowledge; darkness instead of light. These facts 
fixed the method of interpretation for that time. It was 
impossible that the teachings of Jesus should be understood in 
their direct, natural sense when the whole existing world of 
action seemed to contradict them. It was inevitable that these 
teachings should be deflected and distorted through their 
medium of interpretation — the existing conditions of action. 

The significance of democracy as revelation is that it 
enables us to get truths in a natural, every-day and practical 
sense which otherwise could be grasped only in a somewhat 
unnatural or sentimental sense. I assume that democracy is a 
spiritual fact and not a mere piece of governmental machinery. 
If there is no God, no law, no truth in the universe, or if this 
God is an absentee God, not actually working, then no social 
organization has any spiritual meaning. If God is. as Christ 
taught, at the root of life, incarnate in man, then democracy 
has a spiritual meaning which it behooves us not to pass by. 
Democracy is freedom. If truth is at the bottom of things, 
freedom means giving this truth a chance to show itself, a 
chance to well up from the depths. Democrac} T , as freedom, 
means the loosening of bonds; the wearing away of restrictions, 
the breaking down of barriers, of middle walls, of partitions. 
Through this doing away with restrictions, whatever truth, 
whatever reality there is in man's life is freed to express itself. 
Democracy is, as freedom, the freeing of truth. Truth makes 
free, but it has been the work of history to free truth — to 
break down the walls of isolation and of class interest which 
held it in and under. The idea that man can enact " law " in 



CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY. 67 

the social sphere any more than in the so called ''physical" 
sphere simply shows with how little seriousness, how little 
faith, men have taken to themselves the conception of God 
incarnate in humanity. Man can but discover law by uncov- 
ering it. He can uncover it only by freeing life, by freeing 
expression, so that the truth may appear with more conscious 
and more compelling force. 

The spiritual unification of humanity, the realization of 
the brotherhood of man, all that Christ called the Kingdom of 
God is but the further expression of this freedom of truth. 
The truth is not fully freed when it gets into some individual's 
consciousness, for him to delectate himself with. It is freed 
only when it moves in and through this favored individual to 
his fellows; when the truth which comes to consciousness in 
one, extends and distributes itself to all so that it becomes the 
Common- wealth, the Republic, the public affair. The walls 
broken down by the freedom which is democracy, are all the 
walls preventing the complete movement of truth. It is in the 
community of truth thus established that the brotherhood, 
which is democracy, has its being. The supposition that the 
ties which bind men together, that the forces which unify 
society, can be other than the very laws of God, can be other 
than the outworking of God in life, is a part of that same 
practical unbelief in the presence of God in the world which I 
have already mentioned. Here then we have democracy ! on 
its negative side, the breaking down of the barriers which hold 
truth from finding expression, on its positive side, the securing 
of conditions which give truth its movement, its complete 
distribution or service. It is no accident that the growing- 
organization of democracy coincides with the rise of science, 
including the machinery of telegraph and locomotive for dis- 



68 JOHN DEWEY. 

tributing truth. There is but one fact — the more complete 
movement of man to his unity with his fellows through real- 
izing the truth of life. 

Democracy thus appears as the means by which the revel- 
ation of truth is carried on. It is in democracy, the com- 
munity of ideas and interest through community of action, that 
the incarnation of God in man (man. that is to say, as organ 
of universal truth) becomes a living, present thing, having its 
ordinary and natural sense. This truth is brought down to 
life; its segregation removed; it is made a common truth 
enacted in all departments of action, not in one isolated sphere 
called religious. 

Is the isolated truth about to welcome its completion in 
the common truth ? Is the partial revelation ready to die as 
partial in order to live in the fuller ? This is the practical 
question which faces us. Can we surrender — not simply the 
bad per se — but the possessed good in order to lay hold of a 
larger good? Shall we welcome the revelation of truth now 
going on in democracy as a wider realization of the truth 
formerly asserted in more or less limited channels and 
with a more or less unnatural meaning? As democracy 
comes to consciousness itself, becomes aware of its own spir- 
itual basis and content, this question will confront us more 
and more. We are here in the University to think, that 
is to say, to get hold of the best tools of action. It is our duty 
not to float with the currents of opinion, but to ask and answer 
this 'question for ourselves in order that we may give some 
answer when others begin to ask it. Will the older formula- 
tion, inherited from days when the organization of society was 
not democratic, when truth was just getting its freedom aud its 
unity through freedom, — will this formulation strive and con- 



CHRISTIANITY AND DEMOCRACY. 69 

tend against the larger revelation because it comes from what 
seems to be outside its own walls, or will it welcome it joyously 
and loyally, as the fuller expression of its own idea and 
purpose ? 

It is your business and mine to answer this question for 
ourselves. If we answer it for ourselves we shall answer it for 
more 3 many more than ourselves; for it is in our hands and in 
the hands of such as we are, to get this question decided 
beyond a peradventure. There is no better time than the 
present for the solution; there is no better place for it than the 
University of Michigan — an institution based upon inquiry 
into truth and upon democracy. Can anyone ask for better or 
more inspiring work ? Surely to fuse into one the social and 
the religious motive, to break down the barriers of Pharesaism 
and self-assertion which isolate religious thought and conduct 
from the common life of man, to realize the state as one Com- 
monwealth of truth— surely this is a cause worth battling for. 

Remember Lot's wife, who looked back, and who. looking 
back, was fixed into a motionless pillar. 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 

PROF. FRED N. SCOTT. 

Delivered March 13, 1892. 

•' The Lord is God of the living only, the dead have another 
God." I take these words from a curious prose fragment by 
the poet Coleridge, entitled "The Wanderings of Cain." 
The first murderer and his little son are represented in their 
journeyings by night as coming upon the ghost of Abel. 

" The Shape that was like Abel raised himself up and spake 
to the child: ' I know where the cold waters are, but I may 
not drink, wherefore didst thou then take away my pitcher?' 
But Cain said: ' Didst thou not find favor in the sight of the 
Lord thy God?' The Shape answered, ' The Lord is God of 
the living only, the dead have another God.' Then the child 
Enos lifted up his eyes and prayed; but Cain rejoiced secretly 
in his heart. ' Wretched shall they be all the days of their 
mortal life,' exclaimed the Shape, ' who sacrifice worthy and 
acceptable sacrifices to the God of the dead, but after death 
their toil ceaseth. Woe is me, for I was well beloved by the 
God of the living, and cruel wert thou, O my brother, who 
didst snatch me away from his power and dominion.' ' 

" The Lord is God of the livingonly, the dead have another 
God." These words of Abel, or words startlingly similar in 
their import, may be heard to-day in the mouths of no small 
number of men who call themselves Christians. There is one 
God of the dead — a God of the Palestine of two or three thous- 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 71 

and years ago. Offer acceptable sacrifice to him and be wretched 
all the days of your life, in order that after death you may 
cense from toil. There is another God, a rather commonplace 
and homely deity, who has to do with Congress and the Stand- 
ard Oil company and street-car lines and telephones and dis- 
secting-rooms, whose power is of a lower aud less glorious 
character. Make sacrifice to this God and your chances for 
the future are somewhat doubtful. 

Such is the implication of no small part of the religious 
talk one hears and the religious literature one reads. Ancient 
things, simply because of their age, are accounted as worthy of 
peculiar reverence. It is as though one God were thought to 
be interested in persons and institutions of the past, another 
and a somewhat inferior God in those of the present. Say 
what you please, the God who provided for the transportation 
of the Hebrews across the Sinaitic peninsula is, in the minds of 
the majority of men, a more god-like being than the one who 
watches your arrow-like flight from here to the Pacific coast 
in a Pullman palace car. 

This species of polytheism, if I may call it so, is responsi- 
ble, as it seems to me, for serious misinterpretations of the facts 
of modern life. I am anxious that in what I have to say this 
morning it may not vitiate my conclusions. I shall endeavor, 
therefore, in treating my topic, to speak from a purely mono- 
theistic point of view. I shall try not to make any distinction 
between the God who spake amid thunders from Mt. Sinai, and 
the God who speaks from the clatter of the newspaper press, 
between the God who shook Calvary with an earthquake, and 
the God who supplies Detroit with natural gas, between the 
God of the uncommon and the clean, and the God of the com- 
mon and the unclean. 



72 F. N. SCOTT. 

It is the purpose of this paper to ask the meaning of that 
very common and sometimes very unclean social fact, the 
modern newspaper ; more particularly to inquire into its rela- 
tion to Christian belief and practice. As it will be necessary 
at the outset to define the term Christianity, I will begin by 
stating what, in my opinion, Christianity is not : 

In the first place, it is not a religion. 

In the second place, it is not embodied in creeds or dogmas. 

In the third place, it is not a closet into which men can 
withdraw from contact with the material things of life. 

In the fourth place, it is not a scheme for saving indi- 
viduals. 

Let me explain what I mean by these four negatives, 
which, standing thus in isolation, may seem harsh and even 
inconsistent. First, Christianity is not a religion. It is no 
easy task to frame such a definition of religion as will meet the 
approval of all, even of those who are here present, but I think 
we should in the main agree upon the following: Religion is 
the conscious desire to be one with God, and the satisfaction of 
that desire through conduct in our daily life. This is a broad 
definition which covers and is intended to cover all the so- 
called religions known to history. For my own part, I find 
it impossible to look upon Buddhism, upon the Greek and 
Roman observances, upon the beliefs of the primitive Aryans, 
as lying without the circle of religious history. One of the 
most profoundly significant passages in all the New Testament 
is that contained in St. Paul's address to the Athenians on 
Mar's Hill: "God . . . hath made of one blood all nations of 

men for to dwell on all the face of the earth that 

they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him 
and find him, though he be not far from every one of us." 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 73 

The apostle, if I interpret him aright, means there is but one 
God, and that he is God of the whole universe. In him liter- 
ally do all things live and move and have their being, and in 
so far as men at any and all times have sought after this divine 
being and have found him in the world about them, and have 
lived out their beliefs, iu so far have they had truly religious 
lives, whether it were in Africa, or Japan, or primeval Amer- 
ica. 

I know that this view has not been generally held. Per- 
haps it is not even now the common view. There have been 
those — there may be yet — who divide all religions into true and 
false beliefs, or into religions and superstitions. It has been 
thought that Christianity could be glorified by contrasting it 
with other religions. The darker they were painted, the more 
material, sensual and depraved they were made to appear, the 
brighter it was supposed would be the shining forth of that ray 
which is believed to be the light of the world. Even some 
well-meaning historians and philosophers, through mistaken 
zeal for a good cause, have laid on the colors with a careless 
hand. But one cannot go far in this depreciation of non-Chris- 
tian religions without encountering serious obstacles. Men 
lived in India, Greece and Rome as noble, as earnest, as ele- 
vated in spirit as any who walk the earth to-day. History 
tells of priests of so-called false religious who believed devout- 
ly, who strove to teach their people purity, uprightness, and 
religious faith. And what shall we say of such examples of 
pagan virtue as Socrates and Plato — men whose lofty sincerity 
puts all of us to shame, whose names are synonyms for devout- 
ness, manhood, courage? We cannot talk of the darkness of 
paganism as though these men had never lived. That to be 
untrue to the facts, to become ourselves false priests. Swift, 



74 F. >-. SCOTT. 

in his Letter to a Young Clergyman, says that it was the custom 
in his day for ministers to seek to advance Christianity by 
abusing the Creek philosophers; but he has noticed that it is 
generally those wh( know least al out the latter that rind most 
:•:• -ay in abuse of them. In the same way. Ave may say in 
general, that it is those who have but a vague, incoherent idea 
of the tenets of paganism who are lou.iest in denominating it 
wholly false and useless. Those wh<:> know these religions inti- 
mately and profoundly always speak of them with a respect 

-ring on reverence. Indeed it may be laid down as a 3 : 
maxim that any belief that has long held sway over a great 
number of human minds is w rthy : n spect. To despise it on 
the ground that it is not Christianity, shows an intolerance., a 
narrowness which is diametrically oj sedl bb c antral teach- 
ing of Christ himself. 

The truth is that this view of the religi ns : the world is 

ittom polytheistic. If there is but '.me God, there is, there 
can be, but one religion, in whatsoever various F< rms it may be 
manifested. I believe that this is so, that all the so-called great 
religions of history have been stages by which man has drawn 
steadily nearer to God, by which God has revealed himself with 
_: wing clearness to man. This appi ach ■:' truth and human- 
kind went on until the day when that revelation was made 

tete, when God and man met once for all upon the Mount 
of Olives and by the Sea of Galilee that they might forevei 
after meet upon every hill and plain and by every stream the 
whole nride world over. Since that day. we who have shared 
in that revelation, have known, or should have known, all 
igion undei the name of Christianity. There is no othei 
name to call it by. 

Christianity is not. therefore, areligion, one religion among; 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 75 

many. It is for us, precisely, religion, the religion, the modern 
religion, the only religion which it is possible for us to con- 
ceive. It is the process of the reconciliation of God and man 
which I have termed the essence of religion, brought openly to 
conciousness and thus revealed. Revealed, it is true, as never 
before, but so revealed because it gathered up into itself the 
significance of all previous anticipations of this revealing. The 
dreams of Buddha, the wistful hopes of Plato, the confident 
prophesies of Isaiah — all found themselves here realized. 

This is no new idea. It is almost as old as the Christian 
era. The early Latin father, Tertullian, says that the human 
soul is naturally Christian. We do not bear Christianity to the 
heathen, we awaken it within them. And so Clement of 
Alexandria, one of the early Greek fathers, was of the belief 
that God had but one great plan for educating the world, of 
which Christianity was the final step. He considered the 
Greek religion a preparation for Christ's coming, little less 
significant than the Jewish dispensation. 

It will now be apparent, I think, what is meant by my 
second negative, namely, that Christianity is not embodied in 
creeds or dogmas. In the first place, if Christianity is as big as 
all religion, no creed can hold it. A creed that contained the 
particulars of Christian belief would be a document as long as 
from here to the furthermost fixed star, and in it would be 
written all the hopes and aspirations and struggles of the human 
soul since man appeared upon this planet. In the second place, 
no dogma can represent it, because a dogma is a fixed and rigid 
thing, whereas Christianity is ever growing and widening with 
the widening sympathies and interests of men. When you 
have put your leaven into the lump, it is folly to enclose the 
lump in an air-tight bottle. No, the essence of Christianity is 



76 F. N. SCOTT. 

not in the dogma or the creed, but in the lives of men. And 
men grow. They want a better creed every day. Even though 
they use the old forms, they read new meanings in them. To 
a genuine, live Christian the words of the creed mean infinite- 
ly more to-day than they did yesterday, and to-morrow, because 
the interests of the man are growing and ramifying, will have 
fresh significance. 

In the third place, Christianity, I have said, is not a closet 
into which men can withdraw from contact with the material 
things of life. The belief that it is so, seems te be an error held 
over from the Middle Ages. Such beliefs die hard. Certain- 
ly, it was no part of the teachings of Christ that man should do 
his work by withdrawing from the forum and the market. He 
had no theory to propose upon which men were to meditate. 
His was a gospel of action . It was a gospel to be lived out in 
conduct, in the relations of men, in the progress of civilization. 
Otherwise it would not have existed at all. It would have been 
a mere Utopian fancy, and have taken its place, with other 
such fancies, upon the dusty book shelves of libraries. Instead, 
it found embodiment in the works of men, the progress of 
wars, the building of churches and school-houses, the man- 
ufacture of clothing, the draining of swamps. It was the vital 
principle in that re-adjustment, that re-handling of materials, 
which we commonly recognize as the sign of the advance of 
civilization. 

In the fourth place, Christianity is not a scheme fur saving 
individuals. It is not that because it is something more. In 
economics and in politics men are passing beyond the merely 
individualistic view to a conception of the inter-actions of soci- 
ety. Man is no longer viewed as an isolated individual, but 
.as part of a large social and national organism'in which he per- 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 77 

forms a certain function. But in religion this view seems not 
yet to have gained a foothold. Here again is a trace of poly- 
theism. Christians are coming to accept the unity of society 
as a fact in politics, but are not yet ready to accept it in the 
domain of religious thought. Men are to be saved politically 
as members of the social organism; religiously they are to be 
saved as individuals, or as members of particular sects. The 
curious thing is that for the new conception in economics and 
politics, Christianity is itself responsible. It is the teaching of 
Christ regarding the brotherhood of man, the duty of doing to 
others as you would have others do to you, and the consequent 
widening of interest, — it is these influences which in fact and 
in theory have established the organic state. Yet by this con- 
ception, Christianity itself, as an object of reflection, seem& 
the last to profit. If I read my Bible and the history of the 
world aright, the aim of Christianity is not to save isolated 
individuals, but to save mankind, to regenerate society, to 
effect the salvation of individuals as members of the commun- 
ity - 

If we turn now to the positive side and ask what Christian- 
ity is, my answer will be as follows: 

First, there is but one religion, and that, when in the his- 
tory of the world it came home to the conciousness of man- 
kind, men learned to call Christianity. 

Second, Christianity is a social fact, manifesting itself not 
in isolated individuals, but in society as a w T hole. It is, 
indeed, the social element, the connecting links which make 
society out of mere individuals. 

Third, Christianity exists to-day, not in creeds, but in the 
lives of men, and not in individual men, but in men as parts 
of the social organism. It is embodied in their institutions, in. 



78 F. N. SCOTT. 

their tools, in all their instruments of progress, in all their 
means of communication, in their laws, their prisons, their 
asylums, their schools, their places of business. It has found 
its way into material substances. Wherever iron and steel and 
copper have been so shaped as to serve as an instrument for 
bringing men closer together, there Christianity is embodied; 
and whosoever uses that instrument rightly is furthering, is 
inevitably furthering the spread of Christianity. In the same 
way, whoever is voting for laws which embody Christian prin- 
ciple, is working for Christ. He is making more efficient that 
organism in which society is working out its own salvation. 

If we examine more closely into the character of this social 
organism, we shall find it to have three sides or aspects. We 
may even say that these have been indicated for us by our 
Savior himself. In answer to the query of the doubting Thom- 
as, Christ is represented as saying, "I am the way, the truth 
and the life. ' ' If we may regard the whole record of Christian- 
ity simply as Christ writ large, we shall not go far astray in 
accepting this three-fold division, and asking to what elements 
of the social whole, these terms appear to correspond. 

First, the life. The Christian life can include nothing 
less than the whole of conduct in so far as it in any sense and 
any degree, embodies Christian ideals; that is, develops the 
man, brings him into closer relation with his fellows,, satisfies 
his need for free activity in ordered social relations. For 
example, it is my belief that the highest embodiment of Christ 
in politics is democracy. Therefore, in a real sense every act 
which furthers the efficiency of the United States government 
is, I hold, an act of the Christian life. Voting, keeping books, 
arresting criminals, teaching, running a mail train, all are as 
truly promoting the cause of Christ, as is going on missions to 



CRIST1ANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 79 

South Africa, or giving large sums to charity. I do not care 
how far you push this inquiry. If we are monotheists, if we 
Christians in the true sense, we shall be obliged to confess that 
every act of the individual which furthers the onward move- 
ment toward social regeneration, is a fraction of the Christian 
life. 

I see no cause for alarm in this. Surely, if men could be 
made to feel that not alone in the extraordinary observances of 
life, going to church and the like, but even in the pursuit of 
their ordinary business, they were growing into the likeness of 
Christ, it would be a blessed thing. But how can this be 
brought about? Simply, as it seems to me, by telling them 
the truth regarding the society of Avhich they form a part. 
And this brings us to the second division. 

Second, the truth. "Ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free." In other words, show to the bus- 
iness man, the farmer, the lawyer, the real meaning of the 
work in which he is engaged, and he will be set free, the chasm 
between his working life and his religious life will be bridged. 
He will cease being a dividuum and become an individuum. 
His integrity in the true sense, his oneness and wholeness of 
mind and purpose, will be restored. He will renounce poly- 
theism and embrace monotheism. Such, I believe, is the 
result, in every case, of a genuine revelation to one's self of 
the meaning of all one's acts. It amounts to a conversion. It 
is the recovery of one's birthright. It is the conviction that 
life, in so far as it is real, is Christian,— Christian to the very 
core. 

It is to achieve this end, as it seems to me, that all 
research which is worth while, is now being carried on. This 
is the real purpose of all investigation in science, in philos- 



80 F. N. SCOTT. 

ophy, in economics, in the whole rauge of human knowledge, 
— it is simply a huge searching after Christianity, an attempt 
to bring home to men the meaning of their lives. Scientists 
have not as yet generally recognized this fact, nor have pro- 
fessing Christians yet recognized the scientists as their allies. 
Men, for long, could not see that Christianity is a world-phe- 
nomenon. They could not grasp the meaning of their own 
words. They said that Christ was the light of the world, but 
they thought of that light as shining on a few square miles of 
territory. They thought of him as the Christ of men, not the 
Christ of nature; as the Christ of the church, not the Christ 
of business, of art, of daily life. As a consequence men 
turned to nature as though God were not in her. They deter- 
mined the motions of the planets and the phenomena of animal 
and vegetable life; and one day the wisest and most patient 
of them all, stood up in the assembly of wise men and said, 
Here, see, we have surprised the secret of the universe. All 
animal and vegetable life is a process in which the integrity of 
the organism is maintained by the co-operation of the indi- 
vidual members. What you call the growth of the animal or 
plant is but the differentiation of parts, which die as parts to 
reappear at the same moment as members of the whole body. 
And this idea was applied to plants and animals, to apes and 
men, to the history of society, government, and even religion. 
And this the wise men called evolution. And the wise men 
were right. They had surprised the secret of the universe. 
They had reported an evolution in human thought, a new atti- 
tude toward nature, an endeavor to grasp in terms of nature 
the workings of their own minds, in which by heredity and 
contact with the institutions of civilization, Christianity had 
become the law of movement In other words, the Christian 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 81 

conception of the social organism was working in their minds, 
giving them new insight into the facts of life. The church at 
first opposed the new idea, fought it, denied it, then yielded 
ground gradually, and finally came to see with shame that it 
was fighting Christianity itself. Perhaps even yet it does not 
see that the evolutionists are using the weapons of Christianity. 

In the same way it could be shown that the study of his- 
tory, or of constitutional law, is at bottom only a search for 
that Christianity which men in the course of the ages have 
embodied in the social order. 

This truth of life, this embodiment of Christianity in 
human institutions, is to be brought home to men, but how 
shall this be accomplished? The life is so complex, so rapid 
in its movement, so varied, apparently so disorganized. Through 
what instrumentality can its meaning be conveyed ? We now 
come to the third division, the way. 

By the way, I mean any and every means of conveying to 
men the meaning of their lives, of demonstrating to them the 
truth of the growing organization of society through the embod- 
iment of Christ's teachings in the institutions of government 
and the motives of men. Every means of this sort, through 
which man obtains his freedom, I am accustomed to call art. 
If we glance over the history of Christianity, we shall find that 
the earliest way was the spoken word. Christ delivered his 
teachings orally, and these again were spread, through the 
medium of his disciples, by word of mouth. Later these 
teachings were recorded in the symbols of speech by means of 
writing on parchment, papyrus, waxed tablets, or sheets of 
lead; and these became what we now call the New Testament. 
But as Christianity spread abroad it came to people who could 
not read, and for whom the simple words of the biblical record 



82 F. N. SCOTT. 

were too abstruse. For them some simpler, more obvious 
method was demanded, some means that would convey directly 
and unmistakably the truth of the Christian life. It was in 
response to this demand that painting sprang up and ran its 
course through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. On the 
tombs of the catacombs, on the walls of the churches, in gigan- 
tic frescoes, on canvas and paper, the artists of that time told 
the whole story of the Bible for the hungry multitude. Miles 
and miles of convent and cathedral walls were covered with the 
record of our Saviour's life, passion, death and resurrection. 
The whole biblical history of man, from the legendary Fall of 
the Angels to the Last Judgment, was pictured again and 
again. Innumerable canvases were filled with deaths of mar- 
tyrs, with legends of the monastic orders, with events in the 
lives of prophets and saints. In this way there was con- 
veyed to the people, to the masses, in visible form, the 
meaning of the life they were leading. But painting could 
not forever supply this want. There was need for some means 
of diffusing knowledge more widely and more rapidly. The 
picture can be seen by but a limited number, and copies require 
time and cost much money. To remedy this defect came the 
printing press and the movable type. The spoken word could 
now be duplicated at slight expense and distributed as widely 
as need be. It is significant that the first volume thus distrib- 
uted was a copy of the Bible. 

From that time to the present the history of the means of 
conveying the truth to men has been mainly the history of the 
printing press. No very great change is noteworthy except 
the multiplication of presses, until we reach the opening of the 
present century. By that time the growing organization of 
society and the spread of democracy demanded a more rapid 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 83 

distribution of the truth. The demand was met in two ways: 
by the invention of the cylinder press, and by the application 
of steam to the propulsion of boats and railway carriages. 
Later, came the invention of the telegraph. In the meantime 
the impression of the movable types had begun to take on a 
peculiar form to meet the exigencies of the time. The book 
was found too slow and clumsy to supply the needs of the 
constantly growing state. Periodicals soon sprang up, and at 
last papers that were published every clay and which aimed to 
furnish a report of the social and political situation for that 
day or the one preceding. Not to give the history of news- 
papers at tedious length, it may be said that, for the past half 
century, their efforts have been directed toward conveying to 
mankind a true report of the meaning of life. The papers 
have not always succeeded in doing this; indeed they have 
seemed sometimes grossly to misrepresent life; and yet on the 
whole the tendency has been in the right direction. Were we 
able to bring all the results before us, we should find them to 
be of simply stupendous importance. It would be found that 
to-day on a scale never before attempted in the history of the 
world, the whole range of human activity is being pictured to 
men's minds, pictured not at long intervals, but daily, almost 
hourly. In a hitherto unprecedented way, that truth which is 
to make man free, and which is making him free, is fluttering 
down upon his door-step. The meaning of society, the steps in 
its onward progress, the evidences of the unity and the kinship 
of man, the record of the emancipation of humankind from 
ignorance and prejudice — all these are reflected in the columns 
of the daily paper, if not clearly, at least to be seen by those 
who will take the pains to look for them. 

If there be any truth in this view, the connection between 



84 F. N. SCOTT. 

the newspaper and Christianity needs no further demonstration . 
The newspaper is the most powerful ally that Christianity has 
ever had. That it fails in one point or another, that one editor 
is venal and another wrong-headed, proves nothing; rather it 
exhibits the direction which the advance is bound to take, 
namely, toward the elimination of the purely individual 
element. Humanity is no longer an infant crying in the 
night, and with no language but a cry. The infant has grown 
into a strong-limbed youth. The cry has become articulate, 
and now is passing into a language by which all men may 
hold communion. It is not enough that the press do what 
painting did. The social conditions have changed. It is 
not enough that newspaper men publish in a haphazard and 
arbitrary way whatever comes into their heads. Society has 
become organized and demands an organized instrument for the 
reporting of its workings and the distributing of its intelli- 
gence. Opinious, guesses, dreams, comments, in general, the 
whole dead mass of what is known as editorial matter, all this 
as the basis for action must give way before the influx of 
truth, the honest report of the facts which we need to help us 
in our living. 

Shall we ever have such an instrument ? Is it likely that 
the newspapers will ever band together into one great organism 
bent upon conveying the truth of life to the minds of all men ? 
I am very confident that the time is not far distant when the 
logic of events will urge them to this step. I could, were this 
the proper time and place, give evidence that the movement 
has already begun. But whether it come soon or late, whether it 
spread with the rapidity of a tidal wave, or whether it reach its 
culmination only with the slow advance of centuries, I think a 
man might venture all that he have of faith in this world, upon 



CHRISTIANITY AND THE NEWSPAPER. 85 

the chance — if it be no more than a chance— that therein lies the 
solution to problems which have vexed the world since the 
g >spel of Christ first began to be preached. "Iara the way,'' 
said the Saviour. There is but one w r ay, and when we have 
found that, when we have discovered a great channel by 
which the truth may be brought home to the lives of men, 
then no matter how poor and trivial and unworthy and unclean 
that way may seem to be, we may rest assured that it is for us 
of to-day, the voice of the real, the living Christ. 



III. 

SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 



EELIGIOUS STUDIES IN CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 

PROF. ALBERT B. PRE3COTT. 

Delivered Feb. 21, 1892. 
[John i, 1-10.] 

Any studies of created things, made in a distinct recogni- 
tion of God as their Creator, become religious studies. Re- 
ligion is defined as "the recognition of God as an object of 
worship. ' ' This definition applies to all religions of all peoples. 
Among ourselves, in the thought of civilized life, and among 
college students, whoever acknowledges God admits Him to be 
the Creator of all. I need not consider any one as having 
belief in a God who is not a Creator. With us it is, perhaps, 
the very easiest of the declarations of God, that "all things 
were made by Him." We believe this if we believe in God at 
all; without this there is no starting point for our studies. 

The recognition of God, in studies of natural objects, im- 
parts to these studies such degree of religious character, as is in 
proportion to the extent in which God is recognized. It is first 
on the natural side that we admit Him to be the Creator. It is 
first on the religious side that we acknowledge Him as a being 
for worship. It follows to fill out our recognition that we 
know Him as a being for our obedience and our love. 

The first four words of the Apostles' Creed state a suf- 
ficient qualification to take a course in religious study of science : 
"I believe in God.'' The first four words of the English Bible 
signify the same, "In the beginning God." And when for the 



90 A. B. PRESCOTT. 

divine name we place the definition given in Webster's Dic- 
tionary we have these terms for the full creed we require 
in the study before us, I achioivledge God, the Creator, being 
for worship, obedience, and love. With this creed we are well 
prepared to make religious studies in any field of science. 

Man's knowledge of things existing below his own mind, 
so far as this knowledge is systematic and general, constitutes 
the basis of what are called the sciences. ''Physical Science" 
includes both "physics" and "chemistry." The chemist has 
made studies of the composition of bodies, and of their trans- 
mutation. He inquires into the different kinds of matter, and 
the nature of the essential difference between one kind of mat- 
ter and another kind of matter. Chemists have a heavy task in 
hand. All the matter of the solid globe, of the living things 
and the atmosphere upon it, indeed all the matter of the uni- 
verse is before the chemist for analysis. The task was fairly 
entered upon one hundred and eighteen years ago, and a good 
deal has been already done towards its completion, but it can- 
not be said that the chemistry of so much as one drop of water 
is fully known to any man as yet. 

The task of the chemist is rich with many meanings at 
every step of the way. It is most rich when the hand of God 
is recognized in all the fashionings of matter, and His truth is 
seen to be the strength of the sands under our feet. 

The subject for this morning has been announced as "Re- 
ligious Teachings of Chemical Science.'' In the spirit of this 
subject let me use another phrase for it, and let me propose, 
for the time we have together, Religious Studies in Chemical 
Science. Let us study a little, even a very little of the chemis- 
try of creation, and let us endeavor to do this in the single de- 
sire to learn of the Creator while we study. 



RELIGIOUS STUDIES IN CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 91 

Let us learn, first, that strength and solidity do not lie- 
in matter, as it appears to us. We trust to the iron strands of 
the suspension bridge to sustain us across the chasm above the 
merciless cataract, and yet when we drop a wire of the same 
iron into a certain clear liquid, the metal, owing its strength to 
the grasp of chemical force, yields to another command of the 
same power, and, as you see in the test-tube, it dissolves to a 
liquid as clear as water. 

We build a wall of marble, that it shall be strong, but 
what is marble? Chemical action, with proper liquid, dissolves 
it, and a part of it becomes a breath, one that boils in the cool- 
ing draught at the soda-fountain. The quality of matter shifts 
and changes with every change in the direction of this force. 
The marble is solid, and inert to touch and taste. Its molecules 
cohere perfectly. Each molecule, we say, has an atom of cal- 
cium bound by two of oxygen to one of carbon, and to the 
latter is bound still a third atom of oxygen. Make the marble 
white hot, and the atom of carbon takes two of the oxygen 
atoms and becomes the molecule of a vapur. The other oxygen 
atom cleaves wholly to the calcium, and a new molecule results, 
a particle of quick-lime, loose and light, biting the tongue, and 
corroding the flesh. 

All the studies of the chemist are made upon transmuta- 
tions of matter. Professor Kekule* says: " The relations of a 
body to what it once was, and to that which it may become, 
form the essential object of chemistry.'' 

The character of matter depends upon the direction of this 
resistless power, the movements of which, in the innermost of 
chemical compounds, the chemist can follow but for a part of 
their way. One of these atoms of oxygen, as we study it, holds 
the metal with one bond and the carbon with another bond, and 



92 A. B. PRESCOTT. 

there is good marble. The oxygen turns both its bonds to the 
metal, and there is crumbling quick-lime. The atom is known 
only as the center of a certain chemical activity. Deprived 
of all chemical activity matter must cease to exist in any 
form known to man. Take away this conserving force 
-and 

"The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve." 

What we call the indestructibility of matter, actually is the 
persisting activity of chemical force. 

What we know of the atom of carbon, as it migrates from 
a compound in the air, to a set of compounds in the green leaf 
and to a series of unions in the blood of animal life, thence re- 
turning again to its first place in the atmosphere, what we know 
•of it is, that it is a center of chemical energy acting in swift 
response to other chemical centers, with multiplied changes of 
result. Indeed what we predict of this atom of carbon in the 
latest hypotheses of stereo- chemistry is but this, a center of 
chemical force, acting at once in four directions equidistant 
from each other, so that these lines of action coincide with the 
four solid angles of a tetrahedron. 

As we continue, secondly, to follow the workings of the 
jorees which make and unmake matter, the more we study 
them the farther they lead us beyond visible and tangible ob- 
jects. Our studies of chemical action lead us to inquire of the 
supposed ether of physical science. 

Consider, if you wili,any chemical reaction in the labora- 
tory. In its results it is simple, exact, invariable, true to con- 
ditions every time, true in weight and volume and power. 
But in its causes, it leads us, step by step, to the most etherial, 



RELIGIOUS STUDIES IN CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 93 

and immeasurable existence conceived by science. Not to go 
to a laboratory, stop and think of that chemical reaction going 
on before everybody every day on the hearth, the burning of 
coal. We figure the weight of oxygen to one of carbon true 
to the second decimal, perhaps to the third. We declare the 
number of horse-power from one ton of coal, and the load of a 
running train verifies the rule. Yet when we inquire into the 
nature of that chemical force whereby one atom of carbon 
unites with two of oxygen, we are led to predicate something 
very near to the substance of a spiritual body. When we reach 
toward the cause of matter we approach the realm of the soul. 

The world hears much of evolution, from the studies of the 
biologist, with a general vague imprtssion, partly true, that 
mind is developed out of life, and life out of matter. Back of 
this development and along with it, there is another evolution, 
shown by the studies of the chemist, that matter is developed 
out of force, and force is generated by mind. It is a just con- 
clusion that such creative mind is infinite in person, wisdom and 
love. 

This conclusion is derived from studies, thirdly, of the un- 
erring order found in chemical action , and the unvarying benefi- 
cence of creation. It is a classical inscription of old world 
laboratories, "God has ordered all things in exact measure and 
weight." The periodic harmonies of matter in its chemical 
structure speak to the mind of the chemist, as the beauties of 
the face of nature speak to the soul of the artist. Creation is 
for man in this, that he is capable of hearing its voices. 

All the chemical activities render service to man. The 
fertilizing reactions in the soil, the combinations of food in the 
living body, the renewing of tissue material in muscle and 
nerve, the storage of coal and petroleum to do the work of the 



94 A. B. PRESCOTT. 

artizan, the ministry, or nature under the strivings of art, all 
are provided to nourish and to instruct the soul of man. 

To study the methods of creation, in recognition of the 
Creator, is to gain religious instruction. This a privilege of 
the chemical student, whatever be his order of chemical studies. 
It may be an analytical study, to find what are the parts in 
combination. The analysis may be qualitative, for the identi- 
fication of parts, or quantitative, for the ratio of mass of each 
part. As a masterpiece of literary art may be dissected with 
gentle care, to find the division lines between groups of the 
artistic elements, so a proximate analysis may be conducted in 
the laboratory to reveal the groupings of the atoms within the 
molecule. As, again, a work of literature may be torn asunder 
to its ultimate residues by the critic to find only how much of 
each part has been taken in the composition, so the chemist 
resorts to the combustion furnace for an ultimate analysis and 
quantitative results. In any case, whether in literature or in 
chemistry, it is the highest purpose of the study to show forth 
the plan of the author. And so when the chemist investigates 
by a synthetic method, it may be said in a figure of speech that 
he makes a compound, but it is not really true. It is not he 
who makes. It is the utmost of the chemist to be a witness of 
the method in which the compound is made by the Creator, 
when His forces are liberated through the agency of man. The 
crystal of a synthetic laboratory product is as much a piece of 
Divine Creation as can be any crystal found in a grotto just 
opened by the explorer. The greatest chemical skill cannot 
alter an atomic mass by any fraction of its weight, nor can it 
effect so much as the slightest variation in any chemical constant^ 
To be a learner is the utmost of human knowledge. To liber- 
ate the creative forces and make wav for them is the utmost of 



RELIGIOUS STUDIES IN CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 95 

human skill. In synthesis or in analysis, the highest purpose 
of the student is the same, to find out the order of creation, in 
"the things that are made." If his spirit be reverent, he may 
expect to be taught of God. 

This is not a claim that all the studies of chemistiy shall 
be directed to religious euds in the distinct sense here intended. 
There are studies that should be secular, for the times clue to 
the daily life of people. And there are studies that should be 
sacred, for the interests of immortality. 

Still less is this a claim that science, such as chemistry, is 
a full revelation of God, sufficient for the heart and the life of 
man. God 'has spoken "at sundry times and in diverse man- 
ners" to his children. All truth leads to God, some truths the 
more directly. 

God's truth as it is in material creation, is in constant 
reference throughout the bible. When Paul as an evangelist 
was preaching Christ in terms the soonest to touch the con- 
sciences of his hearers he besought them to turn "unto the liv- 
ing God, which made heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and 
all living things that are therein," quoting from the Psalmist 
who adds "which keepeth truth forever." All the attributes 
of God are shown forth in the face of nature. "Thy mercy, O 
Lord, is in the Heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth into the 
olouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." 



HOW HAS BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH MODIFIED 
CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS? 



PROF. V. M. SPALDING. 



Delivered February 28, 1892. 



The question proposed for our consideration assumes that 
within recent years Christian conceptions have in some way" 
undergone modification, and that biological study has had more 
or less to do with this. 

If this is true it is a most important fact, for one's con- 
ceptions of truth, whether well grounded or not, constitute the 
truth for him, and the religious conceptions of any person can- 
not be permanently changed without affecting both character 
and conduct. 

The independent study of such a question, therefore, takes 
on a deeply serious aspect, and the more so since it can hardly 
be doubted that some such changes as those assumed are actu- 
ally taking place, and that, furthermore, one cannot discuss a 
subject of this kind fully and frankly without in some measure 
contributing to the very changes of sentiment that, whether to> 
be welcomed or deplored, are, at all events, of momentous con- 
sequence. 

I should not have proposed to myself such a task as this,. 
but since it has been laid upon me I shall, with a deep sense of 
responsibility, enter upon it. It must be clearly understood,, 
however, that the elements of the problem are not all given,, 
and that some of the factors involve individual judgment, a 



CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS MODIFIED BY RESEARCH. 97 

fact that precludes the hope of reaching a conclusion in which 
all will concur. 

It must be said at the outset, that however our conceptions 
may have changed, Christianity, as a great historical fact, 
stands absolutely untouched. Our fathers may have held views 
about it that we cannot accept, and our own views may be 
equally unacceptable to those who come after us, but this in no 
wise affects those fundamental and indisputable facts, viz : the 
life of Jesus Christ on earth, his aim to bring men into near- 
ness and fellowship with God, the marvelous power of Chris- 
tianity through all the centuries that have intervened, and its 
purifying and enlightening influence as it exists in the world 
today. Theorize as we may, accept or reject the non-essential 
accompaniments that have followed the Christian religion like 
the camp-followers of a conquering army, mistaken often by 
the thoughtless for a part of the army itself, we find ourselves 
face to face with a great historical fact, a gigantic force that, 
however explained, exists, and makes itself felt today as never 
before. 

Again, no matter how we may seek to explain it, there is 
such a thing as personal religion. We may or may not have an 
adequate comprehension of its psychological basis, but those who 
have sincerely endeavored to come into such a relation to God 
as Jesus Christ sought to establish, and have felt the impulse 
to a higher and better life that it gives, have within themselves 
a knowledge based on actual experience, as real, though possi- 
bly as difficult of explanation, as the enjoyment of music by 
one unacquainted with its theory. 

Whatever may be said, then, in what follows, that may in 
any way appear to conflict with commonly accepted views, the 
point of departure has been clearly indicated. We proceed 



98 V. M. SPALDING. 

with the distinct recognition of Christianity as an actual his- 
torical fact, and personal religion as an actual experience. 

The first question to be considered is whether biological 
study in itself tends to weaken religious faith. There is, appar- 
ently, a more or less-prevalent impression that such is the fact, 
and it becomes of importance to ascertain, if possible, whether 
this impression is well grounded. 

A great number of individual cases at once present them- 
selves, amply sufficient in my own judgment to show that 
studies of this nature neither make nor unmake Christian 
character. Like every other absorbing pursuit, they may, of 
course, be so conducted as either to develop or repress religious 
sentiment. One who enters upon a scientific career with a pre- 
disposition towards agnosticism is likely to have this strength- 
ened. Dealing constantly with phenomena, accustomed to 
observe manifestations of life only in connection with matter, 
the physical and material come to fill his range of vision, and 
the spiritual becomes more and more alien to his habits of 
thought. If, on the other hand, his scientific work has been 
taken up and carried on under the influence of a dominant 
religious idea, then year by year his study of living things will 
bring him into more direct relation with the Divine Source of 
life. 

A striking illustration of this is seen in the career of two of 
the most eminent workers in biological science of the present 
century, Charles Darwin and Asa Gray. Both were men of 
unquestioned integrity and extraordinary scientific attainments. 
In their kindred subject of investigation they were in mutual 
sympathy, and frequently corresponded with regard to the per- 
plexing questions opened up in their earlier studies of evolution. 
Yet in their religious views and various other respects they w r ere 



CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS MODIFIED BY RESEARCH. 99 

totally different. In the latter part of his life Darwin frankly 
said of himself: "For many years I cannot endure to read aline 
of poetry. . . .1 have also almost lost my taste for pictures or 
music. . . .My mind seems to have become a kind of machine 
for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts;" and 
in another connection : "As for a future life, every man must 
judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities." 

Of Dr. Gray, on the other hand, it has been said, his "was 
a life in large dimensions. Nature had dealt generously with 
him, and from none of her gifts and proffers did he turn away." 
It was in accordance with this larger measure of life that he held 
in its integrity the Christian faith . In his Yale lectures he said : 
"I accept Christianity on its own evidence, which I am not here 
to specify or justify; and I am yet to learn how physical or any 
other science conflicts with it any more than it conflicts with 
simple theism." 

Cases of this kind, though perhaps presenting less striking 
contrasts, might be almost indefinitely multiplied. While, 
then, it is obvious that pre-eminent attainments in science give 
no assurance of either a religious life or correct apprehension 
of religious truth, it is certain that they present no obstacle to 
the highest development of Christian character. 

It will be said, however, and apparently with much truth, 
that here, as elsewhere in human affairs, we have to deal so 
largely with habit, temperament and will, in other words, the 
"personal equation" is so prominent a factor, that a comparison 
"of individual cases, however extended, is unlikely to lead to 
positive results.- Our study, accordingly, will now take the 
-form of ; an. inquiry: as to whether the fundamental conceptions 
of Chdsti^nity{are capable, of, comparison with those of biolog- 
ical,, .science, ^4 if ; so, whether, they are mutually , antag- 
onistic, ... . .-■■-: ■ ; 



100 V. M. SPALDING. 

How shall we ascertain what is fundamental in Christian- 
ity ? By comparing the views of Christian people ? The ques- 
tion has only to be asked to answer itself. Christian concep- 
tions — so far as they are Christian — must be decided directly 
from the teachings and practice of the founder of Christianity. 

In referring thus to the authority of Christ, I by no mears 
intend to imply that there could not and ought not to be, in the 
time following his life on earth, any modification in the forms 
of Christian thought. He seems to have fully understood that 
there would be such changes and to have desired that there 
should be. The prediction that those who followed him should 
do still greater works, directly implies development and growth. 
He introduced the kingdom of God, taught the elementary les- 
sons, sowed the good seed, and left to his disciples and those who 
came after them, to care for the growing grain and gather in the 
harvest. They were to develop forms and methods, and even 
elaborate into a system the truths he taught or implied. But 
while freely admitting the singular confidence thus reposed in 
his followers, and the extraordinary trust committed to them 
for all the ages, it must be clearly understood and insisted upon 
that nothing is really Christian that is not in essential harmony 
with the teachings of Christ. There may well be development, 
or unfolding, of Christian doctrine, but anything not in accord- 
ance with the teaching and mind of the founder of Christianity 
is unchristian. 

Let us, then, as far as the habits of years will permit, unin- 
fluenced, as far as this is possible, by the accumulated interpre- 
tations, additions and misconceptions of eighteen Christian cen- 
turies, try once more to understand what Christianity really 
was in the beginning. I assume, for this purpose, the essential 
genuineness and authenticity of the gospel, folding as the result 



CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS MODIFIED BY RESEARCH. 101 

of the most trustworthy scholarship that they tell us enough, 
and truthfully enough, to enable us to form a clear and sub- 
stantially accurate mental picture of the life, work and teach- 
ings of Christ. 

In the first place, then, Christ's conception of God was of 
a Father. Through life and in death the fatherhood of God was 
something as real as his own being. Witness his life of prayer. 
In the presence of the multitude he lifted up his eyes to heaven 
and blessed the food he gave. In the silence of the night he 
rose up a great while before day and went into a place apart to 
pray. His very imagination was filled with the thought. Listen 
to the parable of the prodigal son. How that most beautiful 
piece of the literature of all nationsand ages embodies the great 
theme that filled the life of Christ! God the Father of all men, 
loving and pitiful, not waiting, merely, but reaching out to 
help and save and forgive. 

Now this is the Christian conception of God. Whatever 
may have been added to it, whatever a relentless logic may have 
attributed to the Creator of the universe, now or in times past, 
the fundamental conception of the fatherhood of God is char- 
acteristic of Christian modes of thought. "Behold, heprayeth." 
That meant that the man referred to was a Christian. He was 
actually approaching God, and asking him for what he needed, 
The conception and its application is precisely the same today 
as it was nineteen hundred years ago, and it still serves as a 
practical test. A Christian regards God as his Father and asks 
him for help. 

Again, there comes to us in the teachings of Christ, like air 
from the mountains, the conception of righteousness. Listen to 
the terms of admission into his kingdom. "Except your 
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and 



102 V .M. SPALDING. 

Pharisees, ye shall in do case enter into the kingdomof God.' T 
Hear the interpretation of the law: "Ye have heard that it 

hath been said but I say unto yon" — and then came 

the principle of righteousness, of duty, of truth, in the inward 
parts. Watch his own application of it in all his life of self- 
renunciation. "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us 
to fulfill all righteousness." It was always and everywhere 
the teaching of Christ that duty, based on loyalty to God, that 
righteousness is the very foundation of Christian character. 
And in one form or another, more or less clearly apprehended 
and expressed, this has been from that time down to the present, 
the conception of his followers. Obscured in various ways it 
may have been, but its necessity has always been acknowledged, 
and even the least consistent of the followers of Christ have 
freely admitted that of all men they were bound to li ve the 
truest and act the best. This deep and abiding sense of obliga- 
tion has rested on something entirely different from grounds of 
expediency. The Christian says within himself "I ought, - r 
following the example of Christ, and with loyalty to him, to 
do this, and the motive has stood the test of fire and the rack. 
There is, then, a definite Christian conception of righteousness 
and duty. God grant it may never fail from the earth ! 

Once more, the founder of Christianity taught unequiv- 
ocally the doctrine of eternal life, that is, the life of God, that 
those who will may share with him. There is no more sublime 
conception of which the human mind is capable. To know Him, 
"whom to know aright is life eternal,'' to share the thoughts 
of God, to live a part of His life, to feel the assurance that this 
divine life, whatever else may fail, cannot possibly be blotted 
out; what more, or what else can the soul of man aspire to? 
And has any explanation or re-statement ever put it better than 



CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS MODIFIED BY RESEARCH. 103 

the simple form in which the followers of Christ still receive it 
— "the gift of God is eternal life"? 

Bat the true measure of all these conceptions is their actual 
embodiment in tangible form. It has been well said that 
"Christianity is not a theory but a life," and our apprehension 
of it will be far from complete unless we consider one more and 
a very practical aspect of it. 

The most impressively unique feature in the life of Christ 
was its absolute unselfishness. Looking abroad through the 
world, and backward through its history, taking in the long 
record of persistent self-seeking, in the coarse forms of avarice 
and sensualism, and in the refined forms of modern luxury, we 
need to keep our eyes steadily on the fact that Jesus of Naz- 
areth not only taught unselfish love of others, but did actually 
live for others; that this was in great part his gospel, that it 
was so understood by his disciples; and that there have been 
ever since his time those who have sacrificed themselves, their 
own interests, and what men hold most dear, for the sake of 
doing good to others, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. The 
fact is worth dwelling on. The spirit of Christ has actually 
entered into some men. There is such a thing as unselfishness 
on earth. 

Such in barest outline is what appears to me the most 
essential part of what Jesus Christ lived and taught. Has the 
onward march of scientific discovery, has the development of 
philosophical thought in any form affected by so much as a 
shadow the great central figure of Christianity? Has any one 
found a defect in the sublime gospel of Christ — I mean his own 
gospel, as he himself taught it? Has anything come to light 
that prevents any one of us from being his disciple, learning of 
him, catching his spirit, doing a part of the work that he began, 



104 V. M. SPALDING. 

and left us to finish ? Is there not here something that we 
know is eternal ? 

But around this central figure has been built up a system 
of theology that by perhaps the majority of Christians, and 
apparently by all who are not such, is still believed to be the 
Christian faith. It is a most venerable structure. Into it have 
been built the lives and thoughts, the aspirations, the sacrifices, 
the martyrdom of men of whom the world was not worthy. It is 
something not to be lightly thrown into the limbo of forgotten 
dreams. It is our heritage, let us not forget it, of men who 
walked with God. Yes, but of men ! And no work of man has 
ever stood unchanged through any long period of time. 

Turning now very briefly to a consideration of biological 
science in its present stage of development, we find, precisely 
as in the study of Christian ideas, that scientific conceptions are 
based on certain facts. These facts are perfectly obvious to a 
normal and properly trained mind. They have, it is true, no 
moral quality. Their belief renders a man neither better nor 
worse. But as facts they are indisputable. These, as the data 
of science, correspond, in a certain sense, with the data of the 
Christian faith. As in the one case, a theological system, so 
in this, a system known as biological science has been built up. 
Actual workers in this field of inquiry know very well that the 
facts are not all in, and that even what are regarded as funda- 
mental conceptions have slowly taken form, and are still subject 
to modification? Some of these, however, have attained such 
a degree of probability as to command the assent of those who 
are familiar with the facts and open to conviction. Of these 
the theory of evolution is best known, and has had most to do 
with changes of theological views in recent years. 

In its application to the human species, this doctrine 



'CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS MODIFIED BY RESEARCH. 105 

teaches that man, like all other animals, has attained the struct- 
ure, powers and character he now possesses through successive 
stages of development. I need not point out how completely at 
variance with old-time theological ideas this doctrine is. When 
it was first taking form theologians were not slow to perceive 
that it involved, as regards the accepted system, very serious 
consequences, and it is not at ail strange that they should have 
so long, and in some instances, bitterly opposed what has become 
as well settled as the law of gravitation. For, while the essen- 
tials of Christianity have, as I believe, been absolutely un- 
touched by the theory of evolution, it is certain that in its 
relation to hitherto commonly received theological conceptions, 
its influence has been in the highest degree destructive, involv- 
ing, to use Prof. LeConte's expression, the necessity of a com- 
plete reconstruction of Christian theology, 

Nothing short of such a frank admission will meet the case. 
It is neither wise nor right to attempt to demonstrate a har- 
mony that does not exist. It is, as I believe, necessary to begin 
at the foundation if a consistent theological system is ever to be 
built up? And such an admission ought to excite no surprise. 
It is simply saying that theological science, like all other human 
systems, is necessarily of slow growth, and is subject to the 
limitations and hindrances that everywhere arise from miscon- 
ceptions and unwarranted assumptions. 

This reconstruction of Christian theology, already begun, 
calls for high scholarship, a scientific temper, untiring patience 
and a living faith, if the structure is to stand. Mistakes will 
inevitably be made, as they have been in the past, but a student 
•of biological science should be the last one to be troubled by 
this, or to utter a single unkind word as the work is going on. 
He knows that the history of his own science is a history of 



106 V. M. SPALDING. 

mistakes : mistakes made by the best and most conscientious 
investigators of one generation, to be corrected by those of the 
next. He has learned to take no man's word as final. He 

know- no such thing as infallibility, except in the laws of nature 
that are the laws of God. and yet he has boundless faith in the 
fundamental facts and principles from which he is constantly 
drawing inferences and conclusions. 

It is. then, both scientific and Christian to expect mistakes, 
but to look for their gradual elimination ami the final develop- 
ment of a consistent system. It is unscientific and unchristian 
to interpose a single obstacle in the way of those who. in the 
face of more than ordinary difficulties, are engaged in the good 
work of giving consistent form and expression to Christian con- 
ceptions. 

It is still much too early to attempt to show what the "new 
theology'' will be when the principle of evolution has become 
more fully understood and its legitimate consequences realized. . 
The task of its development, of course, belongs to theological, 
not to biological science. But meantime, certain tendencies 
are so strongly marked that they can hardly escape the least 
observant. These are doubtless due, in part, to various causes, 
but it may be safely assumed that evolutionary views have had 
their full share in inaugurating them. 

Of these may be mentioned, first, a marked change of atti- 
tude toward the Bible. An increasing number of the most 
conscientious and intelligent leaders of Christian thought are- 
coming to look upon the Bible simply as the lamp through 
which the light of God shines, the record of God's revelation 
of himself to men. Prof. Schurman of Cornell University,. 
-ays : "I hold the Bible to be a guide to God, though a guide 
needing re-interpretation with every advance of human knowl- 



CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS MODIFIED BY RESEARCH. 107 

edge, insight and experience." Prof. Joseph A. Thayer of 
Harvard, in a timely contribution to this subject, says: ''Facts 
like these * * * * remind us that the church produced 
the Bible, not the Bible the church. They may teach us that 
when we set the book up as the infallible and final appeal in all 
matters of religious belief and life, we are doing something for 
which we have no historic warrant ; we are assigning it a place 
and a function which it neither held nor exercised at the outset ; 
which from the known facts of its history it could not possibly 
have assumed among the primitive believers for generations." 
Prof. Otto Pfleiderer of the University of Berlin, in a recent 
paper says : "The Scriptures, indeed, can no longer come to us 
as a collection of oracles, in which every word and letter is of 
infallible divine authority. We have learned to take account 
of the human side of them, have learned to estimate the histor- 
ical circumstances and conditions under which each portion was 
produced ; in short, we look upon the Bible as a book written 
for men and by men, but full of sublime, holy and divine 
truth. Its religious value is thereby none the less, its power 
to awaken faith and strengthen and build up is none the 
weaker." 

The new and eager study of the Bible that has followed this 
change of attitude has come to partake largely of genuine 
research. It is of the very nature of scientific investigation, 
and so far have the spirit and methods of modern scientific 
inquiry come to be depended upon that it is safe to believe that 
they will never be abandoned. As a result, the Bible must 
inevitably become better known, and its quickening power felt, 
far more than under the former way of approaching it. What- 
ever is regarded as an infallible oracle tends directly to encour- 
age indolence and superstition. The search for truth is God's 



108 V. M. SPALDING. 

ordained means of obtaining it. It is well for Christian men 
if, even by a rough awakening, they are coming to understand 
that religious truth forms no exception to the rule. 

A tendency closely connected with the preceding, or even 
growing out of it, is distinctly manifest and unequivocally 
hopeful. Christian people are beginning to take habitually the 
attitude of learners. With the realization that all truth requires 
though tf ulness and patience for its proper apprehension, that 
wisdom from above is to be sought "as silver" and "searched 
for as hidden treasures,'' a disposition is becoming prevalent 
that indicates at once a more scientific and a more truly religious 
frame of mind. It is equally remote from the self-sufficient 
agnosticism that asserts that man cannot know God, and the 
complacent presumption that assumes both to know him and to 
share with him in the direction of the universe. It is content 
to admit that "we know in part and prophesy in part." It is 
coming to apprehend the truth that no small part of our relig- 
ious training consists in the discipline of uncertainty, and that 
"God's reserve is vastly more edifying to the docile soul than 
man's dogmatism." The lesson may be a hard one for some of 
us, but if we have at last found out that we know less than we 
thought we did of the plans, methods and purposes of Infinite 
Wisdom, let us be thankful to those who have helped us to see 
our ignorance. It is the great opportunity of the Christian 
world to learn a lesson of humility and patience. It is to be 
hoped that the opportunity will not be lost. 

There is, moreover, an unmistakable tendency toward the 
simplest possible expression of Christian faith. It cannot, I 
think, be doubted, that formulas and creeds have so far lost 
their power that they can never again be leaned upon as they 
have been in the past. While one great and honored branch 



CHRISTIAN CONCEPTIONS MODIFIED BY RESEARCH. 109 

of the Christian church is nowlaborously endeavoring to fit its- 
creed to present modes of thought, a very large number of their 
fellow-Christians are wondering how they can possibly expect 
to frame it so that it will last. Plain facts appear to be that no 
council or ecclesiastical body can ever gain such ascendency over 
the minds of men as to command even general assent to the- 
formulas they may propose. This may indicate that we have 
lost much that in times past has probably served a useful pur- 
pose ; but it also indicates that we have made an inconceivable 
gain in attaining something more of the "simplicity that is in 
Christ." 

If the views here presented are truthful, we need not give- 
ourselves undue anxiety about the final outcome. To those 
who ask: ' 'What is there left ?' J the answer is: "Everything 
that is good . ' ' The stripping off of traditions has only brought 
into clearer relief the Divine Presence. 

Many, doubtless, of the most conscientious Christians still 
find themselves in perplexity ; yet more than ever before, down 
in their inmost souls, they long for the presence of God and 
seek his kingdom and his righteousness. To all such the words 
of Christ come with deep meaning: "Have faith in God." As 
if he would say to us today: "Those who were nearest and 
truest to me during my life on earth constantly mistook and 
misapprehended. Why have you made so much of the reporter,, 
with his ignorance and prepossessions, and so little of the mar- 
velous Presence that he vainly tried to comprehend and com- 
municate? Rest now from your fruitless toil, from theories 
and traditions, explanations and contradictions, look beyond 
the rubbish and the haze, cometo me, and I will give you rest. 
The word of man is ever uncertain. Only God is unchanging.. 
Have faith in God." 



GOD AND NATURE. 



PROF. H. S. CARHART. 



Delivered February 14, 1892. 



The relation of God to the material universe is an oft- 
recurring question and furnishes a field for unlimited and very 
interesting speculation. Is God immediately present and voli- 
tionally active in every display of energy in the natural world 
about us, or was this energy imparted to the material world at 
the creation and destined to act on and through nature in the 
endless transformations of matter and the multiform conver- 
sioDS of physical forces? Does matter continue in existence 
.and do the activities of nature proceed with unvarying uniform- 
ity because God sustains the one and continually exerts Him- 
self to bring to pass the other? The answer that we give to 
these questions determines our philosophy of the world, but does 
not touch the inquiry into our moral relation to the Creator of 
the universe. 

Dr. Samuel Clark, the intimate friend of Newton, wrote 
as follows: " Matter being evidently *lot capable of --.any laws 
-or power whatsoever, any more than i£ is capable of intelli- 
gence, except only this one negative power, that every part of 
it will be itself always and necessarily continue in that state, 
whether of rest or motion, wherein it at present is; so, that all 
those things which we commonly say. are the effects of the nat- 
.ural powers of matter and laws, of motion, of gravitation, 
attraction, or the like, are indeed (if we will speak strictly and 



GOD AND NATURE. Ill 

properly) the effect of God's acting upon matter continually and 
•every moment, either immediately by Himself or mediately by 
some created beings. '' John Wesley says, "He is the true 
author of all the motion in the universe. All matter of what- 
soever kind is absolutely and totally inert. It does not, cannot 

in any case move itself Neither the 

•sun, moon, or stars move themselves. They are moved every 
moment by the Almighty hand that made them." Dr. Cocker 
in his " Theistic Conception of the World " says: " He is in 
nature not merely .... impressing laws upon matter, 
but .... the ever present source and ever operating 
cause of all its phenomena. . . . If by nature we under- 
stand the varied forms of energy which underlie the phe- 
nomena, these forms of energy are but various modes in which 
the omnipresent power of God reveals itself. Gocl is immanent 
in matter, and his ceaseless energy produces all the phenomena 
•of nature." 

Joseph Cook said in one of his lectures that the reason 
why we stand in awe of the thunder is because we know that 
-God himself is just behind the cloud, hidden from us only by 
the thin veil of the storm. Professor Bowne says that " a tree 
has no substantial existence in itself ; it is only a temporarily 
persistent form of divine activity." Professor Bowen writes, 
"According to the conclusion at which we have now arrived, 
matter has only a capacity of resisting a change of state ; Effi- 
cient Cause and Final Cause, by which alone that resistance 
can be overcome, .... can be found only in the action 
of mind." 

Respecting these questions we must remark that they are 
speculative and philosophical ones — not scientific; they can 
never be settled by observation nor tested by experiment, but 



112 H. S. CARHART. 

will probably remain to be fought over on debatable ground 
for generations to come. It is of the nature of metaphysical 
and philosophical discussions that the attainment of settled 
truth respecting them is impossible. 

Again, this philosophy of the direct activity of God in 
nature has a strong flavor of pantheism. It is God every- 
where, in everything — in every moving leaf, every whispering 
wind, every sailing cloud, every hot sirocco that sweeps over 
the burning south, every cold wave that pinches and paralyzes 
the frozen north, every firearm that sends its bullet on a mis- 
sion either of mercy or of murder, every accident that brings 
untimely death to scores of human beings, every "pestilence 
that walketh in darkness," every " destruction that wasteth at 
noonday." If all activities are God immediately acting, then 
the Deity has in part placed himself at the beck of the assassin 
as well as the saint, subject to the unhallowed will of every 
sinner that walks the earth ; because saint and sinner exercise 
physical force, a part of animate nature, in which it is asserted 
God is immediately active. To such extremes of absurdity are 
these philosophers brought in order to be consistent in main- 
taining their primary principles. 

Scientists everywhere regard energy as an entity as fully 
as they regard matter as an entity, and hold that its quantity, 
rightly measured, is as certainly fixed beyond our control, 
either to create or destroy, as is the quantity of matter. It is 
no objection to this rule that energy, or the capacity of doing 
work, is never known apart from matter. Neither is spirit 
known by us apart from matter. Even the conception of in- 
corporeal spirit is beyond our grasp. The denial of energy as 
an entity on this ground would lead to an equal denial of spirit 
as a real existence. Neither is energy a property of matter, 



GOD AND NATURE. 113 

because material properties do not pass from one body to 
another as does energy. Color, hardness, brittleness, etc., can 
not be passed on from body to body , yet heat passes rapidly 
by conduction and radiation from mass to mass, and heat is a 
form of energy. So also energy is transmitted from place to 
place and from one body to another by means of electricity. 
A certain amount of energy is employed in uttering these 
words. The energy of muscular contraction first passes over to 
that of aerial vibration, which we call sound ; these vibrations, 
variously distributed, pass into the ears of the listener and 
there causa motions of membrane, bone, liquids, and nerve 
fiber ; others are shivered into minuter motions by impact 
against the walls of the room, the furniture, the floors — 
these minuter motions representing energy in the form of 
heat ; finally this energy of heat passes by radiation into 
space, and no further transformation lies within the range of 
our perceptions or observations. Is it reasonable and in accord- 
ance with sound philosophy to consider this energy, thus dart- 
ing from matter to matter, and changing its complexion with 
every leap, as merely a property of matter? 

One great reason for our belief in the real existence of 
matter is that we have learned, since the introduction of sensi- 
tive balances in chemical analysis, that we can neither create 
nor destroy one particle of it. It may be made to pass through 
many physical changes and to enter into myriad chemical com- 
binations ; but its amount, as determined by weight, is not 
abated one jot or one tittle. If Prof. Bowen's tree is merely a 
temporarily persistent form of divine activity, what is it when 
it has ceased to live and grow, or when it has been resolved 
again into its elements? It is a persistent something still. 
What has been said of matter may be said of energy. The 



114 H. S. CARHART. 

great law of conservation of energy established in modern times 
teaches ns that we have no power to create and none to destroy 
energy. Even the little that we exercise as muscular strength, 
and the origin of which we are prone to ascribe to the action of 
our will, is derived from the fuel that we take into the system 
as food, in conjunction with the oxygen that we breathe. We 
no more create it by our will than the engineer creates by his 
will the energy of the steam in the huge boiler under which 
glows the burning coal when he opens the throttle and sets the 
engine running. The persistence of conservation of energy is 
then quite analogous to the persistence or conservation of mat- 
ter. It is no more detached from the Creator and self-existent 
than matter is. 

I wind up a spring or weight and leave it to run a clock. 
The clock runs for a week without attention. I am neither 
■consciously nor unconsciously present in the activity of the 
•clock. The spring or weight is not a conscious agent to 
do work ; but there is constant activity with no intelli- 
gence present and at work. Motion, planned by intelligence, 
continues, but not as the result of constant intelligent activity. 
If the clock becomes deranged it stops, and will not start again 
without the aid of intelligence to set it in order. But that is 
peculiar to human inventions and devices ; no such limita- 
tion of stoppages applies to the regular and orderly mo- 
tion of the heavenly bodies. So I conceive of the action of 
forces in nature. God created matter and endowed it with cer- 
tain remarkable properties, by virtue of which it becomes the 
vehicle for the manifestation and transmission of energy, which 
He also created. In consequence of this creation and endow- 
ment, every atom and molecule of the physical world is in con- 
stant motion. They all appear, moreover, to be endowed with 



GOD AND NATURE. 115 

certain attractions, or at least tendencies toward one another 
that seem to result from attractions. By reason of these 
attractions and motions we have the physical world built up of 
a limited number of elements, combining with one another in 
almost endless variety. Molecular motion is convertible into 
visible or mass motion, and mass motion is convertible into 
molecular motion. Not including miracles in this discussion, 
because they are not processes subject to our investigation, the 
processes of nature go forward, in my thought, without any 
necessary interposition of divine power, but simply because mat- 
ter was originally endowed with certain persistent properties, 
and the Almighty breathed into it the breath of energy. So in 
the last analysis all power is derived from the Creator, but the 
Creator is not therefore present in every motion and activity of 
nature. It appears to me to lead to palpable absurdity to say 
that all causes are directly mental ones ; that matter in itself as 
divinely constituted, cannot manifest remarkable activities un- 
less mind is actually present in that activity. Professor Bo wen 
says that "the force or active agency by which a stone is 
moved does not reside in the stick, or even in the hand that 
pushes it, but in the conscious or intelligent mind or will, 
which thrusts the hand or stick with a preconceived or definite 
purpose and a conscious effort." How he could explain the 
spasmodic muscular contraction of the limbs or other bodily 
parts in unconsciousness or even in opposition to the conscious 
effort of the intelligent mind or will, he does not tell us. The 
ancients furnished an easy way out of the difficulty by ascrib- 
ing them to demoniacal possessions. His logic appears to be 
about as follows: Efficient causation can act only ab extra, 
that is, outside of and beyond itself, in producing changes ; 
matter cannot act on other matter without getting outside of 



116 H. S. CARHART. 

itself, which is unthinkable ; therefore mind is the only effi- 
cient cause. It follows of course that mind acts outside of 
itself. To establish the latter conclusion and render it intelli- 
gible, he enumerates certain functions of the mind in which he 
conceives it to act outside of itself, without the limitations of 
time and space. One of these functions is knowledge. We 
know both the past and the distant ; and so, he continues, the 
mind extends its field of operations outside of itself, and even 
goes beyond the limits of the body. "All that is inside the 
skin," he says, " is also inside of consciousness. I feel not 
only at my finger tips, but over the whole surface of my 
body.'' ■' I localize a pain as in the head, the knee, or the 
back, and put my finger at once upon the spot where a mos- 
quito has stung me." These statements are their own refuta- 
tion. In a philosophical sense we no more feel at our finger- 
tips than we see at infinity when we look at a star. 

Prof. Bowen imagines that he sees the action of mind out- 
side of itself even in the simplest act of memory. It sets at 
naught both time and space in recalling the past. Xot merely 
a picture or mental image of what has been, but the past itself 
must be actually present to consciousness, he says. In decid- 
ing that a portrait is a faithful copy or reproduction of the 
features of a friend, he declares that even the living face of the 
dead friend must actually be present to consciousness. It would 
seem to be a sufficient answer to such a theory to draw atten- 
tion to the fact that the mistakes of memory are utterly inex- 
plicable if the past is actually present to consciousness. On 
the other hand, the greatest diversity exists in the ability of 
different individuals to form and recall mental images. Some 
recall a landscape or a street scene only in outline, or with all 
sharp contrasts shaded down, or with outlines dimly drawn- 



GOD AND NATURE. 117 

Others recall with remarkable vividness and accuracy. Cere- 
bral impressibility is as diverse as is sensitivensss to touch, 
delicacy of taste, or intellectual apprehension ; and all that the 
mind can do in memory is to recall an impression already made 
in the past, and partly obliterated it may be by subsequent 
impressions and the lapse of time. 

Prof. Bo wen accepts the doctrine of Descartes, that mat- 
ter has no inherent dynamical properties, but only a passive 
capacity of resistance, as manifested by inertia, etc. Hence, 
he says, when vital or psychical forces are carried over into 
the inorganic kingdom, they operate not by extinguishing, or 
even suspending the mechanical properties which are there at 
home, bu tsimply by overriding their opposition, a greatere ffort 
of the psychical force being needed in order to overcome this 
resistance, and the result produced being properly compound, 
because determined by the joint agency of the force and resist- 
ance acting together. It is noticeable that psychical force and 
the so called passive resistance of matter are here placed on an 
equal footing, because they enter equally into "compound'' 
result. But force as applied to mind and force as applied to 
matter are not comparable. The latter has a definite scientific 
meaning and is capable of exact measurement ; the former is 
used in a figurative sense. It is entirely inadmissible in our 
present knowledge of nature to speak of a j^sychical force as 
producing motion of matter. It is unfortunate that some phil- 
osophical writers are not more conversant with the physical 
sciences, and have not imbibed more of the spirit of modern 
inquiry into the processes of nature. In illustration of this 
capital defect, consider Prof. Bo wen's argument that gravita- 
tion is not a force inherent or immanent in matter. He says : 
"Any particle of matter, could it be completely isolated, that 



118 H. S. CARHAET. 

is, if it were alone in the universe, would not gravitate at all. 
Since what is true of any is certainly true of all, it follows that 
the universe as a whole, with nothing outside of it, does not 
gravitate ; and therefore gravity is not a quality inherent in 
matter, but must be regarded philosophically as the result of a 
metaphysical force situated between different bodies, not in 
them, and as acting upon them ab extra, from the outside." 
A " metaphysical force " indeed ! In the first place, no phys- 
icist ever claimed that a body could gravitate toward nothing ; 
but it is a matter of commonest observation that bodies do grav- 
itate toward one another. Neither was it ever supposed that 
the universe as a whole, with nothing outside of it, gravitates 
toward nothingness. It requires at least two bodies to grav- 
itate toward each other ; and all the parts of a system grav- 
itate together toward their common center of mass. Hence 
arise motion and change of motion — the orderly and math- 
ematical progression of the heavenly bodies in accordance with 
well-known laws. If only one compact body existed in all 
space, it must either remain eternally at rest, or if moving, its 
motion must be eternally uniform and in a straight line. And 
no energy would be expended in keeping it in motion, but it 
would continue to move because there would be no force to stop 
it. But let it come into proximity with another body, and 
directly they begin to revolve around their common center of 
mass, because of their mutual gravitation, whereby both are 
deflected from an otherwise rectilinear path. Any one who 
attempts to realize the condition of a body gravitating toward 
nothing, with no other body in the universe, will be content 
thereafter to conceive of bodies gravitating toward one 
another. 

Matter was either put in motion at the creation, or per- 



GOD AND NATURE. 119 

haps endowed with the potential energy of attraction whereby 
motion was generated. Hence result the endless changes of 
nature, some of which only have been explained. Energy is as 
persistent as matter, and along or through matter passes from 
one form to another. Energy was created or imparted as mat- 
ter was created. Within our limited range we transform 
energy and matter by taking advantrge of their properties or 
modes of action, which we call law. We only direct and fur- 
nish the requisite conditions — we create nothing. Not even in 
the exercise of muscular action do we create any energy in 
obedience to the command of will ; for all the energy that we 
can exert by muscular contraction is as fully provided for us 
and accounted for, by reason of external supplies, as is the 
power exhibited by a steam-engine or a water-wheel. The 
hand moves in obedience to the will when the mechanism is all 
in order, but it is not moved by the will as a force. 

" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," 
and there is not the slightest evidence of His having created 
either matter or energy since. If natural forces are God act- 
ing personally, did then the Creator apportion to the material 
universe at the creation a perfectly definite amount of energy, 
to which amount He Himself should ever be limited ? For no 
law is more clearly established by a multitude of experiments 
and dependencies in nature than is the law of conservation of 
energy, exactly like the law of conservation of matter. I do 
not understand this law of conservation to exclude God from 
the direction of earthly affairs for wise purposes. For as we 
bring about a variety of results by variously combining known 
laws of nature within the range of our limited powers and 
knowledge of material operations, without suppressing any 
forces of nature or calling any new ones into existence, without 



120 H. S. CAEHAET. 

suspending any natural law or contravening any natural pro- 
cess ; so the Creator may bring out of natural processes results 
that would not now but for his direction aDd interposition ; 
not that He thereby amends or abrogates or suspends any nat- 
ural law, but combines and directs them as man does, only 
with infinitely greater intelligence and greater knowledge of 
them, because His knowledge is not fragmentary but complete. 
This view leaves ample room for prayer and does not exclude 
God from the material universe ; while at the same time it does 
exclude from our philosophy that pantheistic view of nature 
that makes God active in every motion and manifestation of 
energy, that literally " sees God in the clouds and hears Him 
in the wind." 

Matter is endowed with certain properties and energy acts 
according to persistent laws. The question often arises whether 
this endowment of properties and laws is necessarily as it is, 
or could it equally well have been otherwise, though perhaps 
not with equal wisdom? In discussing this phase of the sub- 
ject, it is necessary to remember that we really see only exter- 
nals ; the real causes may be eternally concealed from human 
understanding. All science is simply an attempt at the unifi- 
cation of natural phenomena by reducing them to general laws 
of action — to include them within more and more comprehen- 
sive theories. It binds or attempts to bind diverse phenomena 
into a comprehensive and related whole by discovering far- 
reaching laws, around which the facts of nature are grouped. 
It marshalls facts in one grand plan, as military science mar- 
shalls heterogeneous groups of men — infantry, cavalry, artil- 
lery — into one grand army with a single definite purpose. 
But when the facts of science have been so grouj^ed and 
explained, we have gone only a single step backward toward 



GOD AND NATUKE. 121 

the First Great Cause ; the mystery of nature remains still. If 
we could get back to primal principles, we might find that those 
once established, all details follow as necessary consequences. 

There are certain laws of thought that we cannot conceive 
as admitting of change. Two and two make four, necessarily ; 
the surfaces of spheres, of necessity, vary directly as the 
squares of their radii. If there is any place in the universe 
where these mathematical facts are different, certain it is that 
telescopic vision has not found it in fathoming space ; nay 
more, we can not even conceive of such a state of things. It 
follows as an equal necessity that all energy, radiating from a 
center as its source, must vary in intensity as the squares of 
the distances from that center, provided only that no energy is 
lost or absorbed in its propagation outward, that is, that the law 
of conservation is true and no conversion into other forms 
takes place. If energy should be annihilated in its progress 
outward, then the diminution of intensity would be greater 
than the law of inverse squares requires. In fact, the inten- 
sity or loudness of sound diminishes more rapidly than the law 
of inverse squares indicates, because there is a slow conversion 
of the energy of sound-waves into heat. 

I conceive of the law of variation of gravitation according 
to the law of inverse squares as a mathematical necessity, so 
long as the laws of thought remain as they are in space of these 
dimensions. 

The evidence of science is quite conclusive that the energy 
of the physical universe, on which life depends, is gradually 
running away into space. The dissipation of energy is a law 
demonstrated by every case of the conversion of energy. All 
forms of energy are slowly assuming that of heat, which is 
slipping into space as a radiant energy. Thus the great 



122 H. S. CARHART. 

mechanism of the solar system is surely running down. It has 
been running without halt for millions of years. This system 
of ours had a definite beginning in its differentiation from 
other nebulous masses, and all science points toward an equally 
definite and certain end, when the heavens shall be rolled 
together as a scroll. This conclusion is unavoidable unless 
there exists some method of gathering together this scattered 
energy and focusing it at some new central point, to run again 
its long shining course. But this cannot happen unless some 
new order contravenes of which at present we have no knowl- 
edge. 

Thus we believe that the Creator made matter in the 
beginning and imparted to it the energy of which He alone is 
the source and spring ; that He ordained that energy should 
act upon and through matter according to definite methods 
which we call laws ; that in accordance with these laws,, 
the present physical systems of the universe, with their 
orderly arrangements and multitudinous natural processes 
have been developed. What a sublime view such a scheme 
gives us of the Creator who so devised the physical universe 
that he could foresee through millions of future years the exact 
results of all His plans! How much more " worthy of its 
Divine author than that which would huddle the whole into a 
few literal days, and convert the incalculably ancient universe 
which we inhabit into a hastily run-up erection of yesterday." 

i( To him who in the love of nature, 
Holds communion w T ith her visible forms, 
She speaks a various language." 

He who becomes familiar with her by long years of inter- 
course, who studies her ways and rightly understands her 
possibilities, becomes more and more profoundly impressed 



GOD AND NATURE. 123 

with her mysteries and the wealth of her resources. She ap- 
pears to him to be possessed of infinite possibilities that need 
only the touch of human genius to waken them into most mar- 
velous activity. He learns no longer to despise matter, 
endowed as it is with divinely bestowed furnishings, and repels 
with a feeling akin to persoual insult the flippantly bestowed 
title of " mud," with which some philosophers seek to belittle 
it. He looks through nature back to nature's God ; and as he 
contemplates the endless play of her activities, and calculates 
the inconceivable sum of her energies ; when he traces back- 
ward the thread of her history, and projects into the future the 
the line of her progress ; when he views her in her totality and 
beholds the plan of her destiny, his heart swells with emotion, 
and he is ready to ascribe honor and glory and power to Him 
who brought matter and energy into being, and set them 
running in their courses down the grooves of time. 



THE METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 



PROF. W. J. HE RDM AN. 



Delivered May 14, 1893. 



True science and pure Christianity have never antagon- 
ized each other. Conflicts between " scieuce so called " and 
sound Christian beliefs, as well as between perverted Christian 
doctrine and truth revealed in material phenomena, or in the 
mental and moral nature of man, have frequently occurred 
and are of necessity inevitable. 

Truth is a unity, and when properly apprehended in one 
department of the universe, is found to harmonize with the 
truth in every other. 

This belief is the underlying unity and harmony of 
things which at first present themselves in such apparent 
diversity, is the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, and the 
foundation upon which all science, of whatever sort, has been 
reared. 

John, in his introduction to his Gospel, states the rela- 
tionship of the founder of Christianity to all truth, showing 
him to be the germ from which all that the human under- 
standing has grasped and recognized as truth, has been 
evolved. 

" In the beginning was the Word, 

And the Word was with God 

And the Word was God, 



METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRISTIANITY. 125 

The same was in the beginning with God. 

All things were made by Him, 

And without Him was not anything 

Made that was made." 

Previous to the Advent of Christianity, science had no 
sure foothold. This came only when by slow degrees the idea 
of One God " by Whom all things were created that are in 
Heaven and in earth visible and invisible," became thoroughly 
interwoven with the texture of the human mind. 

Science presupposes and rests on this oneness and unifor- 
mity of the universe, and " this idea is, strictly speaking, a 
Christian conception." It is more than a coincidence that 
the growth of Christianity and the development of the 
sciences have advanced with equal step. A mutual helpful- 
ness has marked their progress, each having made more rapid 
conquests by the other's aid. Whenever Christianity has 
produced its best fruits, there science has flourished in great- 
est luxuriance. A real antagonism beginning far back in the 
centuries, would not have so resulted. 

No religion of human origin could have formulated doc- 
trines so comprehensive and far-reaching. The founder of 
Christianity " spake as never man spake." A young man of 
humble parentage, untaught by the noted scholars of the day, 
with meager opportunity for associating with the wise and 
learned, with three years of peripatetic teaching gave to the 
world buds of truth, which in their unfolding are found not 
only to accord with the revelations of the nineteen cen- 
turies of human progress, but have furnished the light 
and the motive power by which such progress has been made 
possible. What other religion knuwn to history can be shown 
to meet the requirements of the physical, mental, moral and 



126 W. J. HERDMAU. 

spiritual nature of man and stimulate each and all toward a 
perfect and harmonious development ? 

Detached and disjointed excellencies in sculpture, paint- 
ing, architecture, engineering, and in philosophy and in eth- 
ics, have been the product of scientific methods under many 
of the ancient pagan civilizations, but a pantheistic or poly- 
theistic conception of the origin and maintainance of the 
universe furnished no key wherewith to unlock the mysteries 
of nature and discover the unity and harmony that reigned 
within. If, then it is true that modern science is in a cer- 
tain sense the offspring of Christianity, it is but natural to 
assume that the greatness of the child would reflect honor 
upon the parent, and that whatever excellencies the former is 
found to possess, they are but the necessary consequences, the 
natural expansion, the gradual evolution and expression, of 
what the latter contained from the beginning. The mysteries 
of the germ are revealed by its development, and its dignity is 
determined by the greatness and nature of its product. 

Truth, as discovered by science, and truth, as revealed in 
Christianity, can have no conflict, neither are they at variance, 
but, from this conception of their relationship, they must har- 
monize with and elucidate each other. 

The search-light of scientific discovery turned upon the 
teachings of Christianity, need bring no fears to the heart of 
him who has found in their teachings nourishment for his 
hungry soul, but rather he should welcome it as the seed 
sown in good soil welcomes the sunlight, by the aid of which 
its powers are quickened and it springs forth into newness of 
life and greater usefulness. 

Let us now inquire, what are scientific methods and what 
is the essence, the germ of Christianity, that we may have 



METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRISTIANITY. 127 

clearly iu mind what we mean when we speak of applying the 
•one to the other. 

" The one quality above all others which is characteristic 
of scientific work, which science demands, and which advan- 
ces with the advance of science, is exactness, and exactness is 
nothing but the discrimination and exclusion of small differen- 
ces." Again, "weighing and measuring are at the root of all 
science, and no branch of knowledge is entitled to be called a 
science until means have been devised for measuring its sub- 
ject matter, and every advance in science is an advance in 
accuracy of measurement." But for accuracy of measure- 
ment we must have an absolute and unvarying standard to 
which all measurements are referred. A progress toward 
accuracy and precision is not effected by a comparison of the 
unknown and undetermined with each other, but a comparison 
of the unknown with the positively known. In the infancy 
of the physical sciences the standards of time, weight and 
measure had no uniformity, were crude in nature and arbi- 
trarily chosen; the running sand, the stone of the wayside 
and the outstretched hand served the purpose well enough 
Until the child of nature having become the student of nature, 
must needs look for a time-piece, a measuring-rod and balance 
wdiich were fitted to the magnitude of the task he had assumed 
and which would win from all mankind a universal sanction 
in their attempts to solve the mysteries of earth and sky and 
sea, 

The universality and immutability of the forms and 
movements of the heavenly bodies, and the force of gravita- 
tion furnished the observer with standards of universal range 
of application to all objects of sense, and from these sources 
the electric chronometer, the meter and the chemical balance 



128 W. J. HEEDMAN. 

have been evolved. The Creator is His own interpreter. He 
" who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and 
meted out Heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust 
of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in 
scales and the hills in a balance,'' requires of those who would 
know the marvelous wonders of His works, that they adopt 
the methods that He himself established, in constructing the 
foundations of the material universe before it had pleased Him 
to make man after His own image. 

But the phenomena of matter apprehended by the senses 
are not the only data upon which this exactness of observation 
may be brought to bear. Scientific methods, as here defined, 
have been and are as rigidly applied to the phenomena of mind 
and soul as to the phenomena of matter. There is a mistaken 
idea in the minds of some that the things of sense are alone 
the legitimate objects for the exercise of these operations. 

" The scientific method is essentially summed up in three 
words, observation, hypothesis, verification," and if we wish 
to include the whole materials of knowledge within the field 
of observation, self-observation must be admitted alongside of 
world-observation and be submitted with equal impartiality to 
the test of hypothesis and verification. Facts within man and 
facts without ; phenomena pertaining to the considering mind 
as well as to the object considered, are alike capable of being 
subjected to methods of exact analysis, comparison and demon- 
stration . 

The conduct of man when subjected to critical and exact 
observation is an experimental test of the forces that are oper- 
ating upon and within him. His manner of response to these 
forces determines what manner of man he is. The standards 
of weight and measurement by which the observer makes his 



METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRISTIANITY. 129' 

test in forming his estimate of another's conduct depends upon 
the progress he himself has made in meeting and comprehend- 
ing the complex elements in human nature. His standards 
must be sufficiently comprehensive and capable of universal 
application, or else he has not reached the position where he is 
entitled to speak with authority in this field of scientific obser- 
vation. One cannot expect to arrive at truth in the depart- 
ment of ethics, philosophy or religion while overlooking or 
wilfully ignoring some essential factor in the problem under 
consideration any more than he can reach correct conclusions 
in his chemical analysis or his physiological experiment when 
attended by similar carelessness. A perfect standard for com- 
parison and a comprehensive recognition of all the elements in 
the problem, together with a rigid adherence to the rules of 
scientific experimentation are quite as essential to the progress 
of religion as of science. 

What, now, is Christianity ? When we study it in com- 
parison with the best of the religions that preceded or were 
contemporaneous with it, we find that it is not of man's devis- 
ing. It is more than a system of ethics or philosophy, 
clothed in rites and ceremonies which appeal to the fears, 
awaken awe and operate through the superstitions which they 
are calculated to create and foster. 

" Christianity claims to be no mere social revolution or 
natural step in the march of human progress. It is a religion 
whose sources are not to be found within man's nature, but 
outside of it, in the saving revelation of God in Christ, and 
Jesus is thus the author and giver of an Eternal life, which 
spreads itself and is maintained, not by mechanical contri- 
vance, but by the living spirit of God entering into human 
history and building on the basis of reconciliation a kingdom 



130 W. J. HE RDM AN. 

of God, which is both human aad divine, and which comes 
and comes again in wave after wave of developing completion, 
until the will of God is done on earth as in Heaven." 
" Christianity is not, then, a thing or a speculation, but a 
life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process; " 
a living germ, which, becoming implanted in the soul of man, 
has a transforming power and a regenerating influence which 
makes him a new creature, causing the manifestations of his 
life to follow after a different order from those which preceded 
its development within him. In the light of Christianity, the 
Old Testament record is a history of the preparation of the 
mind of man for the coming of Christ. He came not to des- 
troy, but to fulfill what had been promised. Christianity 
declares that man, the last of all animal creation, was fash- 
ioned in the image of his Maker. He, of his own free will, 
fell from this high estate. Still possessed of a dual nature, 
body and soul, perishable and imperishable, he cannot, by any 
power of his own, regain his lost inheritance after having 
once chosen wilfully to obey the dictates of his fleshly desires 
rather than the voice of his Creator. Still a prey to the 
impulses of his lower nature, he is subject to the laws which 
govern organism and matter of which it is composed. His 
soul languishes for lack of nourishment. His body goes down 
to death in the midst of suffering and sorrow and his spiritual 
part will be forever cut off from all fellowship with the blessed 
unless some power greater than his own and akin to the Maker 
who formed it, should quicken and renew its feeble life. 

Here is the opportunity for the Son of God, and in the 
"ripeness of time" he came, fulfilling the Old Testament 
prophecies. And the New Testament still further declares 
that the long-expected Messiah took upon himself a human 



METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRISTIANITY. 131 

body, that he was born of the Virgin Mary, in a lowly estate, 
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. 
The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into 
Heaven in the sight of many witnesses. And He himself has 
declared that this suffering and sacrifice was necessary for the 
redemption of mankind ; that by His being lifted up upon the 
cross He would draw all men unto Him. 

This, then, is Christianity — the embodiment of a sinless 
life, and that life the standard for our measurements. The 
Divine life submitting to human conditions, and voluntarily 
sacrificing itself to human hate for human need, showed forth 
the love of God to man. And by the acceptance of this sacri- 
fice and the renewing power of that love, man's spiritual 
nature is again gradually conformed to the image of its Cre- 
ator and assumes control of all his faculties. 

How, now, can scientific methods, which have been the 
means of contributing so much to man's physical nature, be 
made to advance his spiritual needs ? If Christianity embra- 
ces the plan of man's spiritual development, would it not be 
profitable to inquire whether or not such methods might not 
be made use of to extend and accelerate this process ? 

By way of sanctioning this suggestion let me first remind 
you of the fact that Christ Himself made use of the scientific 
method of experimental demonstration in His teaching. To 
accomplish the purpose of His ministry it was necessary that He 
give unmistakable evidence of His divine origin. In verifica- 
tion of the hypothesis that He was the creator of all things — 
that the world and all it contains was made by Him, He must 
demonstrate in a convincing manner His power to control the 
forces of nature. This demonstrative proof covers, among oth- 
ers, within th^ sphere of physical phenomena, His power to 



132 W. J. HERDMAN. 

control the winds and the waves, the creation of matter, the 
transformation of matter and the suspension of the force of 
gravitation. In the realm of vital force in vegetable organ- 
isms, His power was shown by the fig tree instantly withering 
that received His curse ; while in animal organism the most 
liberal exhibits of His power and His compassion also, were 
given in response to the appeals of diseased and maimed 
humanity. Even the dead sprang to life again at the word of 
His command. The frequent restoration of the disordered 
mind showed the intellectual faculties subject to His will. 
Only in rare instances did He venture to exercise the highest 
attributes of deity in the direct bestowment of spiritual 
blessings, and in the one notable instance where He said to the 
bedridden and palsied man, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," it 
may be with due reverence suggested, in the light of the com- 
pleted narrative, that the impossibility of giving ocular proof 
of His power in spiritual things, as was his custom at all times 
when possible in other things, caused Him to refrain from 
their more frequent public bestowal. 

When John sent to Him the inquiry : " Art thou He that 
should come or do we look for another ? " Jesus referred the 
messengers to the evidences of their own senses for their reply, 
and said in substance : 

You have heard the dumb speak, 

You have seen the blind restored to sight, 

You have seen the lame walk, the lepers cleansed and 
the dead raised to life and you have heard the gospel 
preached to the poor. John knows what has been prophes- 
ied concerning me. This will convince him of its fulfill- 
ment. 

He did not, after the manner of imposters, seek a cred- 



METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRISTIANITY 183 

ulous and ignorant audience. In stilling the tempestuous 
waves and the boisterous winds ; in directing the casting of 
the nets for the marvelous draught of fishes, He was not sur- 
rounded by witnesses unfamiliar with the scenes and the condi- 
tions where these miracles were enacted. He demonstrated 
his power in the presence of experts — skilled boatmen and 
trained fishermen, whose experience had taught them the lim- 
its of human capacity in their special fields of action and fitted 
them to judge whether these results were natural or the prod- 
ucts of superhuman power. 

What could be more convincing as an object lesson 
in proof of divine power or more perfectly illustrate the 
scientific experimental method in demonstration than the 
feeding of thousands, faint with hunger, in a desert place, far 
removed from all sources from which food could be obtained, 
with but a morsel which was thought by His disciples hardly 
sufficient to meet their own necessities ? Seemingly to avoid all 
possibility of error in the interpretation of the demonstration 
and to impress a lesson of economy as well, He directed the 
fragments to be taken up and they were found to be many 
times in excess of the original supply and yet all had eaten 
until satisfied. 

Could thousands have been deceived as to the cravings of 
hunger? — or hungering, could they have had the pangs allayed 
with aught else than natural food ? Like the control exper- 
iments of the physiologist or pathologist, the twelve baskets of 
fragments furnished, then, as it would now, irrefragable proof 
of the genuineness of the demonstration and the accuracy of 
the result. 

The testimony of the senses again receives its sanction at 
His hands when, in proof of his resurrection, and without 



134 W. J. HERDMAN. 

rebuke, He calls the doubtiDg Thomas to His side, iu the pres- 
ence of many witnesses, and bids him satisfy himself, by sight 
and touch, that what he beheld was not a vision but the self 
same body that had received the spear-thrust and the nails. 
But since modern science, as has been said, owes its very exist- 
ence to Christianity, it should be a matter of no surprise to 
find abundant proof that its founder has everywhere exempli- 
fied its methods in his teaching. 

In no small measure it may be said has science, in these 
latter years, cancelled the indebtedness which it owes to 
Christianity by the discoveries it lias made, which have so 
notably confirmed the accuracy of Old and New Testament 
records. Through the labors of the archaeologist and the 
philologist, the engineer, the physicist and the photographer, 
ancient cities have been unearthed, inscriptions restored, 
hieroglyphics interpreted, mummies and manuscripts discov- 
ered which have given new and valuable confirmation to the 
simple narratives of Moses and the four evangelists. Scien- 
tific methods applied to these researches have been fruitful in 
good results and in the interests of truth should be encouraged 
and applauded on every hand. Faithful research for histori- 
cal evidences will not imperil the essential doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. Even the so-called " higher criticism " can do no 
harm, but, on the contrary, nothing but good when rightly 
comprehended. And it would be well for the apprehensive 
to recall, before they wield the cudgel of defense too vigorously, 
the wisdom of Gamaliel when he said. "Refrain from these 
men and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work be of 
men, it will come to naught, but if it come of God ye cannot 
overthrow it." 

If Christianity is a life-process, designed to meet the 



METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRISTIANITY. 135 

needs of man's spiritual nature, in submitting it to a test of 
its claims by the methods known to science, after all external 
evidence of its genuineness has been settled or made suffi- 
ciently sure, we must scrutinize the internal evidence or what 
it has to offer in its operation on the conduct of man himself 
when subjected to its influence. In starting on this investiga- 
tion the observer must first acquaint himself with the nature 
of man ; how he deports himself in his environment, what is 
the range of his activities, and how he responds to all influ- 
ences brought to bear upon him, lacking only the regener- 
ating influence which is claimed to be derived from God 
through Christ, It is a legitimate scientific proposition and 
one which must be met by the advocates of Christianity, that 
if any cause, other than that which they assume, can be chosen 
to account for the phenomena of man's action at all times 
the value of the Christian life as a transforming power is nul- 
lified. 

Science may turn to historical evidences in its attempt to 
get a solution of this question according to its methods, or it 
may look about and gather its evidence from the men and 
women now living and apply its tests to the conduct which 
they manifest as adherents or non-adherents of the Christian 
faith. Whether it will or not, Christianity cannot escape the 
test. It is in daily and hourly application. Its historical 
evidences as they have been registered in the lives of men, 
women and children during the past eighteen and a half cen- 
turies, are open to inspection, and the life of every professing 
Christian is on the witness stand testifying to the truth or fals- 
ity of the doctrines of Christ, and to the degree to which the 
influence of those doctrines is affecting his own life. 

As to the evidence from human lives in support of the 



136 W. J. HERDMAN. 

uniqueness and genuineness of this life the Christian need 
have no fears. 

When we recur to history and call the roll of the noble 
army of martyrs and pass in review how frail women and 
young maidens, old men and children and youth in the full 
vigor of life, endured mockings and scourgings, bonds and 
imprisonment ; how they were stoned and sawn asunder, 
tempted and slain with the sword ; were forced to wander 
about outcast, in sheepskins and goatskins, in deserts and 
mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, destitute, afflicted 
and tormented, all for the sake of loyalty to Him whose life 
had entered into theirs, and had taught them to count the suf- 
ferings of this life as nothing compared to the joy which was 
revealed, as in store for them that love Him; and when the 
scientific observer looks about him on every hand and beholds 
the doctrines of Christ directing human activity to the con- 
struction of cathedrals and asylums, churches and hospitals; 
and when he learns of the millions of money that is accum- 
ulated and expended in carrying the gospel of Christ to the 
remotest corners of the earth; and when, upon closer observa- 
tion of the conduct of those about him who have felt the 
transforming power of this life upon their own, he sees that it 
is able to disrupt the closest family ties, and counteract the 
deepest affections of the human heart, that it robs ordinary 
self-interest of its motive power, and is capable of making 
any sacrifice that will secure another's good, and yet that such 
a life is attended by unmistakable evidence of the possession 
of a peace and joy which the world can neither give nor com- 
prehend, he cannot but conclude that he has witnessed the 
operation of a force of a higher order than that which actuates 
the human heart without the realm of Christianity. Science , 



METHODS OF SCIENCE APPLIED TO CHRISTIANITY. 137 

if it is true to its methods in dealing with all phenomena that 
can be brought within its range and be subjected to its scru- 
tiny, is challenged for an interpretation of these results so 
contrary to the natural manifestation of human nature. 
With her exactness in weighing and measuring the for- 
ces of nature, she must account for this disturbing 
influence, this transforming power on the nature of man 
which shows itself capable of turning the stream of selfishness 
into channels of benevolence, changing vengeance into forgive- 
ness, and hatred to love; phenomena which the world had 
never seen exhibited in human conduct previous to the advent 
of Christ. But in the demonstration of the phenomena of a 
" life-process " according to scientific methods, the " crucial 
test '' is self-inoculotion, and this the founder of Christianity 
has Himself declared to be the real avenue by which to 
approach the truth to be revealed in this field of investigation. 

"I am the Light of the World ; he that followeth me 
shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. — 
John 8:12. 

" If any man shall do His will he shall know of the doc- 
trine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." — 
John 7:17. 

" If ye continue in my word then ye are my disciples 
indeed ; and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make 
you free." — John 8:31-32. 

It is contrary to all rules of scientific experimentation to 
vary the rules laid down by the author of a method in attempts 
to verify his results. It is unjust to him, and the motive 
which actuates it is either a desire to throw doubt upon his 
conclusions, or a lazy interest in the result to be secured. 

A desire to get at the truth, is at the foundation of all 



138 W. J. HERDMAN. 

knowledge. The desire is sometimes lacking for fear the truth 
may prove unacceptable when revealed. That scientist may 
be justly charged with disloyalty to his methods, if, when the 
truth is made known thereby, in any department of human 
knowledge within the scope of his investigation, he declines to 
accept it. In pursuing investigations regarding Christianity, 
the scientist is not asked to depart from the methods that have 
served him so well in his researches among material things, 
but in entering into the laboratory of another experimenter, 
for the purpose of testing the accuracy of his results, it is 
but fair to require that he recognize the scope and nature of the 
phenomena with w T hich he has to deal, and the standards of 
weight and measurement by which they must be tested, and, 
moreover, before he pronounce adversely, that he submit to 
the final test of self -inoculation by which alone, according to 
the word of Him who introduced the plan of salvation for the 
spiritual regeneration of mankind, its truth can be verified. 

And in closing, I wish to emphasize the notable fact that 
among the many millions who have made this test, in sincerity, 
during the many ages that have passed into history since it 
was introduced, there is yet to appear man, woman or child, to 
raise a voice and protest that the Christian plan of salvation is 
either inadequate or untrue. 



IV. 
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



THE EXPANDING POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. 



PRESIDENT JAMES B. ANOELL. 



Delivered October 9, 1892. 



I know some young men who think the hearty acceptance 
of Christianity would set certain limitations to their develop- 
ment and growth, would in some way fetter their power and 
influence, would somehow preclude the attainment of the 
highest type of manhood. I have heretofore, in the presence 
of some of you, discussed the relationship of Christianity and 
freedom, and have shown, I think, that true liberty is attain- 
able only by conforming to wise and just law, that regulated 
liberty is the only true liberty, that any other liberty is license, 
which is at once destructive and suicidal, that it is ruinous to 
society, and that it calls down on itself the penalties of self- 
vindicating laws, that the old liturgy expresses a profound 
truth when it utters the prayer, " O Thou in whose service is 
perfect freedom." 

I desire now to show that the way to make the most of 
one's self, to develop not only the finest quality but the largest 
quantity of manhood, is to give hearty acceptance to Christian 
truth. In other words, I wish to ask you to consider with me 
The Expanding Power of Christianity on the Intellectual and 
the Moral Force of Man. 

I. Let us see how Christian truth tends to expand the intel- 
lectual powers. It does this by presenting great truths to the 
mind. The mind grows, if at all, by the apprehension and 



142 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

assimilation of truths. This is the method by which the child's 
mind is developed. It is fed and nourished by truths welling 
up from the fountain of intuitions within or streaming in 
through the channels of the senses from without. Could we 
cut off the supply from those two sources, the child's mind 
would remain undeveloped and infantile. Every truth dropped 
into the mind of the race has this expanding power. Newton 
conferred a great benefit on the race by discovering and pro- 
claiming the law of gravitation because of the utility, in the 
arts, of acquaintance with the law. But he thereby conferred 
a much greater benefit through the quickening and enlarging 
power of such a truth, which started so many minds on ten 
thousand voyages of successful exploration and research. To 
say that the mind grows by feeding on truth is only another 
way of saying that it grows by perceiving the mode of God's 
working in the material or in the spiritual world. 

Now Christianity reveals to us the grandest truths we can 
grasp. Let us notice two or three by way of illustration. 

1. It gives us the true idea of God, the grandest truth 
which the mind can possibly take up. I do not say that the 
unaided mind can get no idea of God, though some profound 
thinkers believe that. I think theistic belief may be reached 
without revelation. But how vague and dim is the vision 
which is gained ! How unsatisfying to our longings ! It is 
questioned by many whether the mind unhelped could reach 
the idea that God is a beneficent moral governor of the uni- 
verse ; so limited is the range of our view of his operations in 
the material and in the spiritual world. But the Scriptures 
reveal him to us as a personal Being, self-determined, not 
bound, like Zeus, in the fetters of blind Fate ; infinite in 
power and wisdom and justice and goodness ; the Creator of 



THE EXPANDING POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. 143 

the worlds and all that in them is, existing before the mount- 
ains were brought forth or ever the earth was formed, from 
everlasting to everlasting, the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever, without variableness or shadow of turning ; and better 
still, they reveal him to us as the loving Father of us all, yearning 
for our love with infinite compassion, taking us up when father 
and mother forsake us ; though marshalling all worlds, yet 
hearing the faintest cry of his weakest child and noting the 
fall of the sparrow to the ground. Here is the grandest 
thought the mind can think. The Science of God, Theology, 
if we take the term in its literal sense, is the sublimest of all 
sciences. If we take it in its large and implicit sense as denot- 
ing the methods of God's working in His world, it compre- 
hends and enfolds all sciences, all knowledges, all wisdoms, as 
the sky enfolds and encompasses the earth. 

2. Or we may look at the plan of redemption. I do not 
care to discuss any theory of the atonement. It is sufficient 
for my purpose to call attention to two great facts: first, that, 
as all concede, men are in disharmony, mal-adjustment with 
God, in alienation and estrangement from Him ; and, sec- 
ondly, that He longs to bring them back, that He has so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever 
believes in Him may have everlasting life, that herein is love, 
not that we first loved Him but that He first loved us while we 
were yet enemies to Him. This is the great central fact in the 
life of the race. Some of the best thinkers have agreed that even 
the secular history of the race should be written from Calvary as 
the point of outlook. What a truth is redemption for the 
mind to take up and nourish itself on ! 

3. Or if more specifically we turn to the life of Christ, 
what do we find? A cloud of mystery broods over the begin- 



144 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

ning, a flash or two of light is flung upon the childhood, then 
follows a long period of seclusion and quietude in the carpen- 
ter's home. Suddenly this man emerges from obscurity upon 
the life of Judsea with a magnetic power, which draws after 
him thousands, who hang entranced upon his lips. He wields 
an equal and a marvellous power alike over the forces of 
nature and over the hearts of men. He goes about doing good, 
unstopping the deaf ears, unloosing the dumb tongues, unseal- 
ing the blind eyes, cleansing the lepers, and above all preach- 
ing His glad gospel to the p >or. He raises the dead to life. 
He seeks out the most forlorn outcasts, and speaks peace to 
their souls, even speaks forgiveness to their sins, while at the 
same time he scorches and smites with the lightnings of His 
holy maledictions those whited sepulchres, the scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites. He breathes into the Mosaic law, which 
the doctors had changed into a stiffened corpse, the spirit of 
sweetness and makes it a living thing again. Though by the 
waving of his hand he could summon legions of angels to his 
aid, he goes meekly and alone to the cross, he bears the hid- 
ing of his Father's face, and all this for you and me ; he 
bursts the bars of death and rises triumphant to the side of his 
Father. The loving care of his disciples gathered up a few of 
his words, and those words so few that they can easily be 
printed on one side of one of our metropolitan morning news- 
papers, so simple that a child can linger over them with appre- 
ciative delight, and yet so profound that eighteen hundred 
years study of them by the best thinkers of the world has not 
exhausted or fathomed them. Those words so few contain the 
solution of the gravest problems of life, with which the Aris- 
totles and Platos and Zenos had striven in vain ; they carry 
the key to all wise and noble and successful living ; they have 



THE EXPANDING POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. 145 

changed the whole stream of history ; they have in them the 
seeds of all that is best in what we proudly call our civiliza- 
tion ; they are destined to work out the regeneration of the 
world from pole to pole and from the rising of the sun to the 
going down thereof. You are often advised to read the biog- 
raphies of great men for your instruction. Here is the biogra- 
phy of biographies, the life of lives. It contains within it all 
that is noblest and sweetest in all other lives, and how infinitely 
much besides ! 

And in respect to all this truth which Christianity pre- 
sents, mark that we can never outgrow it, no matter how far 
we advance in our acquisitions. God ever has some new truth 
before us to incite us to new quests. When we have conquered 
one little field, He draws aside a veil and shows us another ripe 
for the harvest, and bids us thrust in our sickles and delight 
our hearts with the golden reward. We may believe that so it 
will be in Heaven, that " hills on hills and Alps on Alps 
arise " to stimulate us to the ever fresh pursuit of new truth. 
If we could suppose our hearts untouched by these truths, 
which God presents, it is clear that merely as an intellectual 
nourishment and stimulus nothing could be compared to Chris- 
tianity. No knowledge of earthly tongues, no science of the 
material universe, could be likened in grandeur and expanding 
power to this science of God, to this highest ethical and spirit- 
ual truth. It bears the mind in its flight far beyond the outer- 
most walls of the visible and material universe into the 
unbounded region of spiritual and infinite truth. 

II. Let us see how Christianity increases our intelligence 
and moral force by the duties it enjoins, and especially by the 
spirit in which it commends and commands them. 

In immediate connection with the idea just considered we 



146 PRESIDENT ANGELL. 

may notice that the scripture implicitly, if not explicitly, en- 
forces the duty of learning all we can of God's methods ; in 
other words, of cultivating our intelligence. So that an indo- 
lent christian scholar, or an ignorant christian man, if the 
ignorance is voluntary, are paradoxes. The indolence and 
ignorance mar the symmetry and subtract from the perfection 
of Christian character. Wherever Christianity has had a pure 
development schools and. colleges have sprung up in its path. 

2. It enjoins the cultivation of all the virtues and tem- 
pers which belong to the highest type of character. It in- 
cludes the virtues of chastity, honesty, purity, self-control, 
which all agree are the conditions of the best development of 
the body and the mind. These indeed are taught by many 
systems of philosophy, notably by the Stoical. But there are 
also distinctively Christian virtues. We may take for illustra- 
tion the conspicuous one of self-sacrifice, not in the sense of 
blind submission to fate, but of a loving surrender to God, 
which leads men to work for highest ends in a Christlike 
spirit. 

3. It is in the spirit with which Christianity brings us to 
duty that its highest destination is found. The old systems 
brought the reluctant soul to duty, as it were, by a dead lift 
on the conscience, by main strength. Christianity finds the 
motive to duty largely in love to God and to man. Other sys- 
tems make duty largely negative, Christianity makes it positive. 
Even the Mosaic dispensation was largely prohibitory. Eight 
of the ten commandments were negative, thou shalt not. Men 
were on so low a moral plane that they needed to have hedges 
and fences of prohibition set up before them, and they were 
driven like a herd to their destination. Now Christianity fills 
the heart with love to God and love to man as the grand mo- 



THE EXPANDING POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. 147 

tive to all action. When one is thus possessed, one is willing 
to run with glad heart and willing feet on all Divine errands, 
counting it all honor to be reckoned worthy even to suffer for 
the Master. Duty is translated into privilege, into oppor- 
tunity. Prohibitions and the need of them fall away. All 
hard reluctances are melted down in the crucible of love. All 
is positive, joyous, spontaneous, vital. This is the Christian 
idea of duty. It may be questioned whether in Heaven the 
word duty may not be dropped from the vocabulary as super- 
fluous. 

III. Christianity has an expanding power by virtue of 
the inspirations and hopes which it kindles. These are as 
wings to the soul on which it mounts up and flies. 

1. The first of these I will name is faith. By faith here 
I mean that perfect confidence and trust in God which leads to 
docility and joy in doing the divine will. It is an immense 
power. The man who possesses it is not deterred from going 
on with his work by the clouds which gather dark above him. 
He believes that through the parting clouds God's face will yet 
shine down upon his path. If adversity and disappointment 
come to him, he remembers that whom God loveth he chasten - 
eth. If obstacles are piled up in his path, he hurls himself 
upon them with the mighty power of a heart at peace with 
God and of a will in harmony with the divine will, and down 
they go with a crash, for after the divine will there is no such 
other power in the universe. The most trivial duties are work 
for God, and are exalted and sanctified into the beauty of an 
offering to Him. 

2. The hope of immortal life revealed to us is another of 
these inspirations. We all know what a shadow rested on the 
earth in classic days because of the gloomy forebodings of the 



148 PRESIDENT AXGELL. 

future. But when Christ burst the bars of death, he poured 
a new light through the darkness of the grave aud brought life 
and immortality to light. From that day, the man who could 
take to himself the blessed words that he is an heir of God and 
a joint heir with Christ to au inheritance incorruptible, unde- 
filed, and that fadeth not away, goes to his work with melo- 
dies sounding iu his heart which accord with those within the 
gates of Heaven. This hope glorifies all life. 

3. The love of man which Christianity cherishes is 
another inspiration. I speak of it here as a working power. 
AVe all know that it is to Christianity that we owe the idea of 
the brotherhood of man in its fulness. In the ancient nations 
a foreigner was a barbarian. The stranger who set foot in the 
forum of Rome was a slave. It was not till Peter, himself 
instructed by the vision of the sheet, taught the Jews that the 
middle wall of partition between them and the Gentiles must 
go down, it was not until on Mars Hill Paul thundered in the 
ears of the Greeks the great truth that of one blood God has 
made all the nations of the earth, that the idea of human 
brotherhood gained a foothold in the race. But when men 
came to see that God loved all his children alike, that all are 
made in his image, that Christ has died for all, that Ave should 
never despair of bringing out the image of the Master even in 
the slave or the sot, then it was that men were invited to go 
to the ends of tie earth to preach the gospel to all nations. 
Therefore it is that to-day when the cry of the child suffering 
from famine on the distant Ganges, the child we have never 
seen and never shall see, rises upon the air and pierces our ears 
here in Michigan, Michigan gold and Michigan wheat, if need 
be, go across the ocean to relieve the sufferer. Nay, even 
pagan nations have felt the power of this Christian idea, and 



THE EXPANDING POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. 149 

so the heavy gates of China and Japan, which from time imme- 
morial were closed against the world, are now swinging slowly 
open on their hinges, creaking with the rust of so many cen- 
turies. 

IV. What education then is there like this Christian 
truth stretching the mind to its utmost capacity, filling it till 
it runs over with all it can take of the knowledge of God, of 
His modes of work, of his relation to us, disciplining the heart 
with all blessed tempers till it grows normally toward God, 
inspiring it with all highest hopes and most stimulating im- 
pulses and noblest enthusiasms of faith, of immortal joy, of 
love to man. 

How many souls has it thus enlarged ! How it expanded 
the narrow, passionate, illiterate Peter till from an ignorant 
fisherman he grew to be the chief preacher of the twelve ! He 
stirs us with his bold and masculine eloquence to-day as he 
thrilled his audience in the pentecostal day. How this Chris- 
tian spirit changed the bigoted, prejudiced, persecuting Saul of 
Tarsus into the great broad-horizoned Paul, whose intellectual 
and moral power has swayed the world as no other man's has. 
And how many others there are of lesser fame, nay of abso- 
lutely obscure lives, to whom this gospel has been equally an 
enlarging and saving power ! 

What now will you do with your lives ? Will you not 
strive to enlarge your minds and your souls by aid of these 
divine helps which have been furnished to you? This Asso- 
ciation stands with open hands and hospitable hearts to wel- 
come all newcomers, and to assist them in securing the largest 
spiritual growth. Never will you, my young friends, who are 
just beginning University life, find yourselves in circumstances 
more propitious for insuring spiritual growth. Here you are 



150 PKESIDENT ANGELL. 

surrounded with a great company of friends, who have the 
same pursuits, the same trials, the same tastes as you have. 
Sympathy is here ever quick and ready. You need not travel 
alone in the heavenly way, but you may enjoy the society of 
those who from experience know the difficulties that are to 
beset you and the joys that are within your reach. They cor- 
dially invite you to cast in your fortunes with them, and in 
their companionship to seek after the expanding power of the 
Christian truth and the Christian life. 



A PEDAGOGICAL VIEW OF SOME NEW TESTA- 
MENT SERMONS. 



PROF. B. A. HINSDALE. 



Delivered flarch 19, 1893. 



For though I was free from all men, I brought myself under 
bondage to all, that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I 
became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to them that are under 
the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I 
might gain them that are under the law; to them that are with- 
out law, as without law, not being without law to God, but under 
law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To 
the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak: I am 
become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. 
— 1 Cor. ix:19-20. 

The New Testament writers constantly keep two things 
separate and distinct, that we constantly tend to confuse. They 
are preaching and teaching. 

The word kerux, found in the Testament three times, 
means a herald, a public messenger, an ambassador. The word 
kerusso, found sixty times, means to act as a herald, to make 
proclamation, to announce publicly, or proclaim some message, 
generally of a more or less public or official character. Kerugma, 
used eight times, signifies what is heralded, cried, or proclaimed. 
These are the words that are rendered "preacher,'' "preach," 
and "preaching" in the English Testament. They set before 
us the preaching function in the strongest manner. Kerux and 
kerusso harmonize admirably with kerugma, considered as the 



152 B. A. HINSDALE. 

Gospel, or the Good Tidings. Perhaps the composition of the 
New Testament, and the naming of written documents 
Gospels, tended somewhat to dull the edge of the original ideas. 
It is at least well to remember the fact stated by a distinguished 
Biblical scholar, "that all the expressions employed in the New 
Testament to distinguish the proclamation of the new truth, 
set aside the notion of written documents. The Gospel was at 
first nothing but the proclamation of the good news of pardon 
flying from mouth to mouth." 

No passage better brings out the force of the word ' 'preach" 
than the prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus applied to himself. 
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 

Because He annointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: 
He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, 
And recovering of sight to the blind, 
To set at liberty them that are bruised, 
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." 
The Greek didaskalos was a teacher. In the Gospels the 
word is applied to Jesus nearly fifty times, and is commonly 
translated Master. Didasko, which is found even more fre- 
quently than didaskalos, means to teach, to instruct, to inform, 
while didaskalia and didache signify teaching or doctrine. 

The functions of preaching and teaching are closely relat- 
ed. The preacher is charged with a message or proclamation 
that he is to announce as a herald, with a view of making dis- 
ciples. The teacher is put in trust with a body of doctrine or 
a system of teaching in which he is to instruct and establish 
disciples. The relation is well expressed by Matthew in his 
version of the commission : "Go ye therefore, and make disci- 
ples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the 
Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: 



A PEDAGOGICAL VIEW OF NEW TESTAMENT SERMONS. 158 

And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of theworld." 
The original distinction is best preserved in the offices that 
we assign to the evangelist, or the revivalist, and to the pastor. 
The characteristic work of the one is to preach, of the other to 
teach. Both, however, are preachers in the commonly accept- 
ed sense. How "preach" and not "teach" came to be used in 
a generic sense, embracing both functions, is a question per- 
haps curious rather than important. The main fact is that the 
Christian ministry combines the two functions of preaching and 
teaching. Moreover, in the New Testament Church they were 
commonly combined in the same man. Paul says he was appoint- 
ed a preacher and teacher of the Gentiles in faith and hope. 

The message that the preacher proclaims, and the doctrine 
that the teacher inculcates, are both addressed to man's spirit- 
ual nature, the only pedagogical difference being that the 
preacher appeals more directly to the active or motive princi- 
ples of the mind. Both seek to influence conduct ; the 
preacher to persuade men to become disciples, the teacher to 
lead disciples in the way of Christian living. 

The minister, whether preacher or teacher, occupies impor- 
tant ground in common with the teacher of any other subject. 
He cannot reach and influence the hearer or disciple save as 
hearer or disciple is prepared to hear his message or lesson. 
Quite as much depends wpon the mind as upon the object. 
"We reason from what we know," "We proceed from the known 
to the unknown," are current pedagogical maxims. When we 
know a new object, as one has said, "We identify the object, 
or those features of it which were familiar to us before ; we 
recognize it; we explain it; we interpret the new by our pre- 
vious knowledge, and thus are enabled to proceed from the 
known to the unknown, and make new acquisitions ; in recog- 



154 B. A. HINSDALE. 

nizing the object we classify it under various general classes ; 
in identifying it with what we have seen before, we note 
also differences which characterize the new object and lead to 

the definition of new species or varieties 

It is not what we see and hear and feel, but what we inwardly 
digest, or assimilate — what we appevceive — that really adds to 
our knowledge." Thus, it is the inner eye that sees and the 
inner ear that hears. 

And so it is with new ideas and thoughts. The mind 
assimilates them through what it already contains. A man 
must be something of an orator, poet, or preacher himself, in 
order to appreciate oratory, poetry, or preaching. One cannot 
read Milton without some sublimity; Burns, without some ten- 
derness; Jesus, without some piety and moral elevation. And 
just as a man sees in a picture, a statue, or a poem some reflec- 
tion of himself, so he finds in the Bible what he brings to it. 
At any given moment the standard of truth or of excellence is 
in the mind itself. Thus Coleridge said: "That is truth which 
finds me," and Paul wrote: "To the pure all things are pure : 
but to them that are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure ; 
but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." The 
relation of objective truth to subjective truth is a wholly differ- 
ent question. The mind, being essentially free, does not, and 
cannot really receive and assimilate any spiritual idea or truth, 
save as such idea or truth meets its own tests. Outward obedi- 
ence, as to a formal rule, is quite another matter. 

There is, indeed, an important distinction between relig- 
ious ideas and mathematical, scientific, and other similar ideas. 
The preparation that religious ideas require is not so much 
intellectual as moral, consisting of an ethical disposition or a 
spiritual tone. Still, this is by no means the exclusive property 



A PEDAGOGICAL VIEW OF NEW TESTAMENT SEKMONS. 155 

of religious ideas. Many secular ideas and truths require 
a previous ethical preparation for their reception ; and it may 
be said, in general, that, the more closely any subject matter 
relates to life and duty, the more important does this antecedent 
ethical preparation become. 

The deadness to spiritual truth of those lacking such 
qualification is strikingly illustrated by many instances found 
in the Gospels and The Acts, and its value is also constantly 
enforced by Jesus and the Apostles. The following passages 
are all from the Fourth Gospel. "If any man willethto do His 
will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or 
whether I speak from myself.'' "Jesus therefore said to those 
Jews which had believed Him, k If ye abide in my word, then are 
ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free.'" "Why do ye not understand my 
speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word." The 
import of these passages is that acceptance of Christ's gospel 
and teaching depends upon a certain personal relation or adjust- 
ment to Him. Doing the will conditions knowing the teach- 
ing; or, as that great preacher, Fred. W. Robertson, puts it in 
his sermon on the first of the above texts: "Obedience is the 
organ of spiritual knowledge." The mental habit or disposi- 
tion now described is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

It is important to observe that the moral disposition of the 
pupil or disciple, as a factor in learning, is in no way peculiar 
to religion. The Christian doctrine on that subject has its 
analogue in every system of teaching. Even in the dryest and 
most didactic studies, as mathematics and the sciences, the 
mental attitude of the pupil toward the teacher is an impor- 
tant factor in effective teaching; and when we pass beyond cer- 
tainty into the field of moral truth, his attitude seriously affects 



156 B. A. HINSDALE. 

the understanding and acceptance of the matter taught. 
Authority implies personal confidence, while a certain amount 
of sympathy and willingness to be taught is indispensable to 
interpretation. Through our whole lives, the construction that 
we put upon men's actions and words, and so our views of the 
men themselves, depend to a considerable degree upon our 
mental affections toward them. The charge sometimes made 
against Christianity, that it demands a sympathetic spirit on 
the part of the disciple, may, therefore, just as well be made 
against any other ethical system. 

To the student of the theory of education, nothing of the 
kind is more interesting and instructive than the routes by 
which the great preachers and teachers of the first age of the 
Church reached their ends. These ends are always the same, 
— to disciple, and then to teach men. But they seek them 
through circles or series of ideas as different as the character 
and training of the men whom they address. The discourses 
of the Teacher who came from God, in particular, deserve the 
closest study as examples of pedagogical method. I may men- 
tion His conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. 

Even the cursory reader of The Acts sees that the book 
contains two kinds of sermons, and that they are divided the 
one from the other by a single criterion: the relation of the 
hearer, or of the audience, to the Messiah determines the cast 
of the sermon. Through all his intercourse with them, and 
particularly by a long series of special predictions, God was 
laboring to prepare the Chosen People for the fullness of time, 
when He should send forth His Son. The Law was their 
schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, and when the Son came 
He at once began to build on this foundation, as did His chosen 
messengers after Him. It would, indeed, be far from the 



A PEDAGOGICAL VIEW OF NEW TESTAMENT SERMONS. 157 

truth to say that in dealing with their countrymen Jesus and 
the Apostles always appeal to Messianic ideas. They appeal 
also to the primal and universal conceptions of men, as when 
they denounce sin, awaken conscience, and call men to repent- 
ance ; but they always move in the Messianic cycle when pre- 
senting the central doctrines of the Christian system. 

The greatest Jewish sermon on record is the one preached 
by Peter on the day of Pentecost. On that day there were 
dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation 
under heaven, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the 
dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judsea and Cappadocia, in Pontus 
and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts 
of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Home, both Jews 
and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. Here were the Hebrew 
Jew and the Hellenistic Jew, Jews of Palestine and Jews of 
the Dispersion ; men differing in language, in general culture, 
in associations and environment: but men agreeing in the com- 
mon possession and observance of the Law; in common vener- 
ation for the heroes, prophets, and poets of their race, and, what 
is more to the purpose, in holding fast the chain of Messianic 
prophecy. They differed in their conceptions of the Messiah, 
s'' me seeing him in David the king, some in Moses the prophet; 
but they all had that faith in a restorer and a restoration 
which hs.d come to be the strongest of all the national aspirations. 
With these facts in mind, let us follow the succession of ideas by 
which the Pentecostal preacher seeks their conversion. 

First, he is obliged to remove a prepossession and to put 
himself in sympathy with his audience. Hearing the Apostles 
speak the various tongues represented, the multitude were all 
amazed and were perplexed, some asking " Whatmeaneth this ?' ' 
while others, mocking, said, "These men are filled with new 



158 B. A. HINSDALE. 

wine." Peter declares that he and his companions cannot 
be drunk, as they suppose, because it is only the third hour 
of the day, but that what the multitude hear is the fulfill- 
ment of an old prophecy. 

" And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 

I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: 

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 

And your young men shall see visions, 

And your old men shall dream dreams: 

Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those 
days 

Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 

And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord shall be saved." 

Having thus won the attention of the assembly, and turned 
the current of their thoughts and feelings into the desired chan- 
nel, the preacher enters at once upon his argument. He 
declares that Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto 
them by mighty works, and wonders, and signs which God had 
done by Him in their midst, as they themselves know; whom 
they had by the hand of wicked men crucified and slain, Him 
God has raised up, having loosed the pangs of death. 

The preacher then makes an appeal to the Scriptures to 
show that the death and resurrection of the Messiah had also 
been predicted. He introduces the patriarch David, whom 
they all reverenced: who, being a prophet, and know- 
ing that God had sworn that of the fruit of his loins He 
would set one upon his throne; he, foreseeing this, spoke of 
the resurrection of Christ, that neither was He left in Hades, 
nor did His flesh see corruption. 

He now returns quickly to the former topic. "This Jesus 
did God raise up, whereof we are all witnesses." Pressing 



A PEDAGOGICAL VIEW OF NEW TESTAMENT SERMONS. 159 

upon their minds the two facts that constitute the striking par- 
allelism — the resurrection of Jesus, and the resurrection of 
the Messiah — and appealing to the visible outpouring of divine 
power: "Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, 
and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy 
Ghost, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear," 
he passes to his grand climax: "Let all the house of Israel, 
therefore, know assuredly, that God hath made Him both 
Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.'' 

The power of the sermon is proved by its extraordinary 
effect. This was due in part to the occasion, to the recent 
history, and the present manifestation of miraculous power, but 
it was largely due to the preacher's skill in choosing his topics 
with reference to his auditors. With a Gentile congregation 
before him, such a sermon would have fallen upon dull ears. 

The first disciples were Jews dwelling in Palestine, and 
even when the gospel had passed beyond Judsea the first 
churches were commonly composed of the devotees and adher- 
ents of the synagogue. It was no accident that Paul, on his 
missionary journeys, sought out his countrymen, going into the 
synagogues on the Sabbath and reasoning with them out of 
the Scriptures, proving that Jesus is Christ. Not only are 
nearly all the converts particularly mentioned in The Acts Jews, 
but these converts are made by arguments and motives that 
could not possibly have produced much effect upon Gentile 
minds. To the Jews the primitive evangelists became Jews, 
that they might gain Jews. But just as soon as they went 
among the Gentiles, they employed arguments and motives 
that were in no sense the products of Jewish training or cul- 
ture, but that belonged to an older and more comprehensive 
religious teaching. 



160 B. A. HINSDALE. 

While Paul waited at Athens for the companions whom he 
had left behind at Berea on his hasty departure from that city, 
his spirit was provoked within him, as he beheld the city full 
of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and 
devout persons, and in the market place every day with them 
that met with him. In both places he preached Jesus and the 
resurrection. Brought to the Areopagus by the Epicurean and 
Stoic philosophers, and challenged by them to make known his 
new teaching, the Apostle to the Gentiles delivered the most 
memorable of all Gentile sermons. 

He begins with observing that his auditors are somewhat 
superstitious. ''As I passed along and observed the objects of 
your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To 
an unknown God.' What therefore ye worship in ignorance, 
this set I forth unto you." Standing as he does under the 
noble temples of the Acropolis, and surrounded by the master- 
pieces of Grecian art, the Apostle's next utterance is peculiarly 
impressive. 

"The God that made the world and all things therein, He 
being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made 
with hands; neither is he served by men's hands, as though 
he needed anything, seeing He himself giveth to all life, and 
breath, aud all things; and he made of one every nation of 
men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, having deter- 
mined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habita- 
tion, that they should seek God, if haply they might feel 
after Him, and find Him, though He is not far from each 
one of us: for in Him we live, and move, aud have our being; 
as certain even of your own poets have said, 'For we are also 
His offspring.' Being then the offspring of God, we ought 
not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, 



A PEDAGOGICAL VIEW OF NEW TESTAMENT SERMONS. 161 

or stone, graven by art and device of man." Notice here 
the broad humanity that marks the choice of the text, 
— the inscription on a heathen altar, "To an unknown 
God." And yet this is the same preacher who but the day 
before, perhaps, had reasoned with Jews and devout per- 
sons out of the Scriptures. Notice the weight and sublimity of 
the thoughts concerning the superiority of God to temples and 
to all human workmanship, and of His creation and providential 
government of men. Notice how the preacher draws nearer 
and nearer to his auditors, enforcing the thought that we live 7 
and move, and have our beiug in God, with a quotation from 
one of their own poets, which again marks the broad humanity 
of the discourse. Notice how completely he saps the basis of 
their idolatry. What pedagogical wisdom and skill in the last 
appeal, where the preacher infers the nature of the Creator 
from the character of the creature; or, more fully, makes man 
the type and representative of God himself. "Being then 
the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead 
is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device 
of man." All this is making himself as without law to them 
that are without law, that he may gain them that are with- 
out law. 

We come at last to the grand conclusion. "The times of 
ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now He commandeth 
men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as He 
hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in 
rightousness by the man whom He hath ordained; whereof he 
hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him 
from the dead." 

Paul's climax at the Areopagus is the same as Peter's 
in Jerusalem — Jesus and the resurrection. But by what a 



162 B. A. HINSDALE. 

different route he comes to it. There is now no personal appeal 
to the multitude in verification of the miracles; no resort to 
Moses or other Old Testament authority; no reference to the 
Messiah. But, on the other hand, we have some of the greatest 
ideas of universal religion : the fact of worship, the spirituality 
of God, His superiority to all creatures, the Divine Fatherhood, 
and the call to repentance, culminating in an appeal to the Judg- 
ment and the Resurrection. Nothiug could more plainly mark 
the Gentile character of the audience; nothing more strikingly 
show the preacher's mastery of his calling. For our purpose, 
therefore, the Athenian sermon is the counterpart of that 
preached in Jerusalem. 

Peter on Pentecost and Paul at Areopagus stand as the 
two most typical examples of Jewish and Gentile sermons. 
Perhaps it is needless to add that the first class is much the 
more numerous of the two. 

The Acts contain yet a third class of sermons — sermons 
that are neither distinctively Jewish nor distinctively Gentile. 
These were preached to persons more or less conversant with 
Jewish history and the Jewish religion, but not fully instruct- 
ed. 

There is an anticipation of the later Gentile sermon in the 
masterly discourse that Stephen preached before the Sanhedrim 
in Jerusalem, which led immediately to his death. This dis- 
course is remarkable for the large use made of Jewish history, 
for the free spirit in which this history is handled, and for the 
consciousness that it breathes that the nation has come short of 
the glory of God, and that God far transcends the bounds with- 
in which the Jews strove to confine Him. After stating that 
Solomon built the temple in the room of the tabernacle, as 
though answering directly the charge that he had spoken 



A PEDAGOGICAL VIEW OF NEW TESTAMENT SERMONS. 163 

against that Holy Place and the Law, the preacher exclaims: 
"Howbeit, the Most High dwelleth not in houses made with 
hands; as saith the prophet, 

' The heaven is my throne, 

And the earth the footstool of my feet; 

What manner of house will ye build me? saith the Lord; 

Or what is the place of my rest ? 

Did not my hand make all these things ? ' " 

In grandeur, this is second only to Paul's burst of 
eloquence at Areopagus. 

The character of the preaching at Samaria we do not very 
clearly know. We are merely told that Philip "proclaimed 
unto them the Christ," and that Peter and John "testified and 
spoke the word of the Lord." But in view of the fact that the 
Samaritans were mongrel Jews, that they had the Pentateuch 
in their own language, and that their temple on Mt. Gerizim 
was but a mimicry of Mt. Zion, we cannot doubt that the 
preaching was strongly Jewish in thought, tone, and language. 

According to Eusebius, the Ethiopian eunuch was the 
first fruits of the Gentiles, and with this view, although his 
classification is disputed, the facts of history are in general 
accord. He was, however, a proselyte of the gate, as is shown 
by his having been to Jerusalem to worship, and by his reading 
the Scriptures as he now rides in his chariot on the road leading 
to Gaza. He is brooding over a passage in Isaiah. 

" He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; 

And as a lamb before his shearer is dumb. 

So he opened not his mouth: 

In his humiliation his judgment was taken away; 

His generation who shall declare ? 

For his life is taken from the earth." 

With such a text, Philip could do nothing but preach unto 
him Jesus. 



164 B. A. HINSDALE. 

All that we certainly know of the religious character of 
Cornelius, the Roman centurion, is that he was a "devout man, 
and one that feared God with all his house, who gave much 
alms to the people, and prayed to God alway." It is clear that 
he had some knowledge of the Jewish religion and its significa- 
tion, but how much we cannot just say. His attitude was 
neither distinctly Jewish nor distinctly Gentile. This is plainly 
shown by the sermon that Peter preached to him, his kinsmen 
and near friends. The preacher begins with the declaration: 
"Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 
but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteous- 
ness, is acceptable to Him," and closes with the words: "To 
Him bear all the prophets witness, that through His name 
every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of 
sins." Within these limits lie a summary of the life, death, 
and resurrection of Jesus, supported by the testimony of 
Peter and the other Apostles, and a declaration of the commis- 
sion to preach and to testify to the people. 

Our studies of New Testament sermons might be greatly 
extended, and be made much more minute and careful. These, 
however, suffice to teach us some important lessons. They 
show that preaching can be successful only in a relative sense; 
that there is, and can be, no universal best sermon or best mode 
of preaching, but that much, very much, depends upon the 
mental condition of the hearer. They renew our minds in the 
substance of the gospel; they illustrate its primitive simplicity, 
whether preached from a Jewish or a Gentile pulpit. Above 
all, they show that its substance, as preached by the Apostles, 
consisted, not of a body of divinity, a theological system, or a 
scholastic creed, but of the life, death, and resurrection of 
Jesus of Nazareth, and of salvation through Him. 



THE PHYSICIAN AS A CHRISTIAN. 

PROF. CHAS. B. NANCREDE. 

Delivered June n, 1893. 

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." — Matt. 18:3. 

I have selected this pregnant passage as the starting point 
for my discourse, because it seemed to me to be one peculiarly 
fitted for the purpose of illustrating not only the physician as 
a Christian, but why and how a physician should be a Chris- 
tian. It is frequently asked, sometimes honestly, sometimes 
scornfully, whether in our day a physician can be a Christian, 
because the apparent revelations of science seem to be at 
variance with that which it is believed the Scriptures state. 
Let me define my position by the statement — and a most pos- 
itive one — that I believe the Scriptures are absolutely true, 
that science is also true ; true because all truth is God's truth, 
and, therefore, truth as revealed in the Bible and in nature 
cannot by any possibility conflict. When they apparently 
do so I am quite satisfied to rest my belief on the impossibility 
of any portion of truth really in essence differing from other 
portions, and prefer to think that I am mistaken in my com- 
prehension of the facts. Mark you, I do not worry myself to 
reconcile them, for I do not believe they need this, nor do I 
commit the fatal error of trying to wrest the Scriptures so as 
to agree with every varying phase of scientific thought. This 
is because I am satisfied with the incontrovertible fact that all 



166 C. B. NAUCKEDE. 

truth is one. that no real difference, as I have already said. 
can exist, the only error being in my fallible comprehension. 
Again I act thus, because what has been confidently affirmed 
at one time in science to be the whole and final truth, has 
thousands of times been shown to be only a single spark of the 
light, which by the distorting action of improperly associated 
facts has conveyed., perhaps, an utterly wrong impression, no 
more representing the truth, than a shattered mirror can 
reflect the true proportions or outlines of an object placed 
before it. 

Shall I, then, trim my Bible here, shall I impose a 
meaning upon it there, until at last I have, as it is improperly 
said, ''adjusted science and revelation/' only to find that 
science soon tells me that she is wrong, that instead of the full, 
clear light of perfect truth, I have been blinding my judgment 
and rendering patent my own hidden skepticism in God's 
revealed truth for less than nothing ; have reconciled nothing 
— for there was naught to reconcile — at the expense of shaken 
trust ? No, let me confidently stand firm upon the foundation 
fact, that all truth is God's, of which at best I can only see a 
part at a time, and that nothing is requisite but trust in him, 
who the Truth itself, cannot lie in either nature or revela- 
tion; that in his own good time here, or on the other side of 
the river of death, all will be clear, for " now we see through 
a glass darkly ; but then face to face ; now I know in 
part : but then I shall know even as also I am known." 
Who is it that brings revelation into disrepute ? Is it 
not the so-called believer who is so afraid that the 
Scriptures are not true. that he must defend them 
against scientific attack ; who never waits before laying 
his lance in rest, to ascertain whether the science be true or 



THE PHYSICIAN AS A CHRISTIAN. 167 

false, whether he is attacking the Giant Error, or, like the 
Knight of La Mancha, a wind-mill. Such an one, conse- 
quently, states that the Bible means this thing to refute some 
attack believed to lie hidden in one scientific fact, then that it 
teaches something different to suit some other supposed scien- 
tific difficulty. No wonder the scientist sneers, and if he has 
any remnant of belief, loses it ! 

But you will say, " If all truth is one, both that of relig- 
ion and of nature, why does not the scientist become a believer 
in revealed religion?'' My friends, as has been so often proven 
by the lives of illustrious men, although the highest scientific 
training and knowledge is no bar to orthodox religious belief, 
if a man starts with such convictions, it has also been abundantly 
proven that science rarely, if ever, alone leads up to religious 
belief ; for are we not told " that no man by searching can 
find out God"? Surely this means searching in his own way, 
guided by his own self-made rules. Without further delay in 
adducing such common arguments as that revelation does not 
pretend to teach science, that it could not have given this 
knowledge except in the parlance of the times when written, 
so that what might have been then correct phraseology, could 
not but convey a wrong impression now, I shall pass on to a 
consideration of some of the chief reasons why science, in my 
judgment, does not lead to religious belief, and then on 
rational grounds explain my conviction that a physician should 
be a Christian. 

Any fair-minded person will, I think, admit that the rea- 
sons I have given for the faith that is in me, show at least the 
possibility of being a Christian physician, so far as the sup- 
posed conflict between science and religion is concerned. I 
believe that in time all the apparent difficulties will disappear; 



168 C. B. NANCKEDE. 

but time is requisite, not the brief span of my life or yours, 
perhaps, but cycles, "for a thousand years are in his sight 
but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night" 
If God took thousands of years to prepare the world for the 
revelation of Himself, as embodied in his Incarnate Son, is it 
a matter for wonder that his revelation of the wonders of the 
natural world, of the laws which govern it, of their true rela- 
tion to spiritual laws should, also, require ages for their per- 
fect elucidation? Be patient ; in God's good time, not ours, 
all will be as clear as the noon-day, "wait, I say, patiently 
upon the Lord and he will give thee thy heart's desire." 

Why does not science lead to religious belief ? Read my 
text, "Except ye become as little children." The scientist 
claims that to be a real searcher after truth, it is an absolute 
prerequisite to approach the investigation of any subject with- 
out prejudice, and that next the nature and scope of the 
evidence necessary to satisfy himself first, and others after- 
wards, of any truth, must be determined. With such a prep- 
aration in most instances correct conclusions will be arrived at 
in science, and so I contend it would be in religion. The 
scientist does not discover one kind of God's truth because he 
is not truly scientific according to his own self-imposed condi - 
tions, he will not approach revelation with the child-like con- 
dition of mind, the true tabula rasa which he properly 
demands as a preliminary to any investigation of natural 
truth, and then he most unscientifically demands that the 
nature and extent of the evidence shall be identical with that 
which he accepts as conclusive regarding natural phenomena. 
When he is in doubt concerning his interpretation of natural 
facts, after determining what evidence is requisite, he then 
arranges such experiments as shall settle his doubts. So also 



THE PHYSICIAN AS A CHRISTIAN. 169 

in religious matters, thousands of those who were once hon- 
estly doubting experimenters, answer, "Whosoever shall do the 
will of God, shall know of the doctriue whether it be of God 
or whether it be of man." This is the only scientific method 
of determining the matter. Follow precisely the plan you 
would employ if some chemical problem were involved. Com- 
ply with the requirements of previous experimenters and abide 
by their results ; but be honest ; see to it that every prelimin- 
ary is complied with, not as you think best, but as the original 
observer claims is requisite to reach the results he attained. 

I contend that the Christian physician is the best raw 
material for a good scientist. He can fearlessly approach any 
subject utterly unbiased, in the child-like frame of mind devel- 
oped by true religion. He knows that it is not only safe to 
study science, but that in doing so he is unfolding new por- 
tions of God's ceaseless revelation to man ; nay more, he feels 
that it is his high privilege and yet more his duty, to thus 
study and help reveal the majesty, the unsuspected justice, 
goodness, and grandeur of the workings of the mind of the 
Omnipotent ruler of the Universe in all the minute details of 
what are called the physical and natural laws by which he has 
seen fit to govern his universe. Do you think that such a 
man can lose his faith because at the stage of knowledge he 
has attained to, some non-essential sentence here and there in 
the Scriptures, which he has been told teaches a certain thing, 
no longer bears the same meaning ? AVill his faith be stag- 
gered, when every new natural phenomenon he observes, goes 
to prove the reign of intelligent law, which insures the perfect 
working out of the marvellous intricacies of the Universe ? 
Will he not become more and more firmly convinced that this 
material life and the laws that govern it cannot explain 



170 C. B. NANCREDE. 

innumerable facts of common observation, but which the laws 
of revealed religion can with as unerring accuracy render 
clear, as his natural laws do his material facts ? Never can he 
lose faith ! ! It may be fanciful, but I sometimes dream and 
I always hope, that perhaps in the future state the true 
Christian scientist will receive the fruition of his labors here, 
in having vouchsafed to him there, what he has so long sought 
for in vain below — the true explanation of many an insoluble 
scientific problem. 

Remember that all I have said is simply a statement of 
the point of view from which I, as a physician and a Chris- 
tian, have been led to consider the relations of science and 
revealed religion, and while I believe it may be helpful to 
many, I can readily conceive that in different ways the same 
end can be more readily arrived at by others. If, therefore, 
what I have said does not enable you to satisfy both your 
religious and your scientific scruples, do not at once conclude 
either that I am wrong, that science is wrong, or revealed 
religion a series of myths, but strive to find the path by which 
you can most readily arrive at the only goal which will leave 
you satisfied to strive no further — a life-moulding faith in our 
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Let me read to you the ancient Hippocratic oath formerly- 
taken by all those devoting themselves to the practice of med- 
icine. I shall omit a few sentences, which, although they illus- 
trate very forcibly the position I am about to take, yet are- 
couched in language that we are unfortunately now-a-days not 
too moral, but too prudish, to listen to. 

" I swear by Apollo, the physician, and iEsculapius and 
Health and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that 
according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this oath* 



THE PHYSICIAN AS A CHRISTIAN. 171 

and this stipulation — to reckon him who taught me this art 
equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with 
him, and relieve his necessities if required, to look upon his 
offspring on the same footing as my brother, and to teach 
them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without either fee 
or stipulation, and that by precept, lecture, and every other 

mode of instruction, I Avill impart a knowledge to 

disciples bound by an oath according to the law of medicine. 
I will follow that system of regimen, which, according to my 
ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, 
and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I 
will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked nor suggest 
any such counsel. With purity and holiness I will pass my 

life and practice my art.'' " Into whatever houses I enter, I 

will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain 
from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption." 
" Whatever, in connection with my professional practice, or 
not in connection with it, I see or hear in the life of men, 
which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as 
reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I con- 
tinue to keep this oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to 
enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in 
all times. But should I trespass and violate this oath, may 
the reverse be my lot." 

Is such an ideal of the professional life thus shadowed 
forth in those far-off heathen times impossible now, with the 
competition, the rush to become famous or rich, or both ? 
Shame upon our boasted modern civilization if we answer nay, 
and yet it is impossible in either its essence or its reality 
except as exemplified by the Christian physician. You may 
ask me for specific instances of the truth which I now assert, 



172 C. B. NANCREDE. 

that it is a matter of daily occurrence to him who has eyes to 
see. To the Jews our Lord was only an illiterate carpenter's 
son, who blasphemously claimed to be God, but to whom, 
as he says, by the Spirit was given sight, he was seen in his 
true light ; so now to those whose spiritual vision has been 
cleared by striving to follow the " footsteps of His most holy 
life," even although stumbling and miserably falling again 
and again, unselfish devotion to duty, the abnegation of self 
and pelf that physical health may be given to others, the 
resistance of temptations, which peculiarity beset a doctor, are 
recognized to be instigated by the Spirit of Christ working in 
many a man, and just in the measure that any physician 
recognizes and fulfills his professional duties as being done 
unto God and not unto and for men, is he a Christian. 

Whose spirit, when the natural desire for ease or rightful 
relaxation says, "Enough has been done in acquiring knowl- 
edge or caring for the sick," replies "No, you work not for 
yourself but for others, your standard should be Christ's, the 
utmost for others, even if it costs life itself"? Who, when the 
question arises, "Shall I peril reputation or practice by calling 
assistance, thereby running the risk of another being con- 
sidered my superior in skill," sternly replies, " 'Get thee be- 
hind me, Satan,' for no such motive can be allowed for one 
instant to stand in the way of another's good"? Who, when his 
patient is in perilous straits, knowing that all his own skill 
has been exhausted in vain, that help cannot be obtained from 
others, yet confidently trusts that if a way of escape be possi- 
ble, in some manner guidance unto it will be vouchsafed him, 
not by miracle or interference with natural laws, but by means 
of the latter ; or, if failure must ensue, calmly feels that all 
has been done that was possible and the result has been over- 



THE PHYSICIAN AS A CHRISTIAN. 173 

ruled by a higher power ? Who, when professional disappoint- 
ments and failures seem about to crush him to the earth, 
feels that he can bear all because in some way it must be for 
his or others' good? The physician who is a Christian; and he 
attains this ideal I have outlined, just in proportion as the 
spirit of Christ is his. When disease, against which the phy- 
sician can have no more protection than the layman, is to be 
met, not in public, not when thousands will applaud the heroic 
deed, but in his everyday work among his pauper patients, 
when no human being can know whether the duty is manfully 
done at all risks, or cowardly fled from, does the Christian 
physician do anything but think shame of himself if he fal- 
ters ? When self-interest, reputation, money or position are 
to be balanced against some questionable practice ; when some 
slanderous remark is uttered or some misapprehension exists as 
to another *physican's conduct, which, if left uncorrected, 
would, must, do his fellow harm and himself good, what does 
the Christian physician do ? Manfully strives to turn a deaf 
ear to worldly sophistry, to ward off the slander, to correct the 
understanding. When in the wrong — and who is there that 
never errs ? — he is willing to acknowledge this, and, when pos- 
sible, repair the damage. 

The timid is made strong by feeling that he has an 
Almighty arm to rest upon for support and guidance ; the 
naturally reckless man has his rashness restrained by a solemn 
conviction of the rights of others and by the knowledge that 
he must some day give an account of the deeds done in the 
body. 

Some will say we never hear of all this ; far otherwise, 
we know of just the reverse ! Sneers, back-biting, open 
attacks upon one another among physicians, and some of them 



174 C. B. NANCREDE. 

professing Christians. Unfortunately this cannot be denied, 
yet why is it ? Because these men are Christians in name 
only, not in deed. Their Christianity is left with their 
prayer-book and their Bible at home, only of use in the 
church, on one day of the week. This explains this deplor- 
able display of the evil side of human nature, not that true 
Christianity does not and cannot prevent such things. 

Again, the physician as a Christian is fitted to have con- 
fided to his care those who are dearer to us than life. To him 
we are compelled to turn in difficulties which no other man 
ever dreams of. His advice and his relations to us are differ- 
ent from those of all others of our fellow men, and surely such 
a man should possess a standard, and be actuated by motives 
which will enable him to rise above earthly temptations. To how 
many of us physicians are freely confided secrets which only 
the Romish confessional can wring from human lips, and 
which, if not handled in a truly Christian spirit, would wreck 
the happiness of whole families ! Think of the endless oppor- 
tunities for good or for evil so constantly opened to the physi- 
cian. Who, so often as he, can condone the sin, make light 
of or nullify its physical results and so help on in the down- 
ward course, or, unknown to all but God and his patient, show 
sin in its true colors, make virtue the more attractive because 
the safer, and give a helping hand to one ready to perish. 
Aye, ready to perish, but not bound to die morally and spirit- 
ually, if — ah there is the trouble — if, not only the word in 
season, but the act in season, renders the word possible of 
fruition. 

The reproof of the clergyman only causes mental revolt 
and an effect the reverse of that intended, or too often falls 
with but little weight upon ears accustomed to pastoral 



THE PHYSICIAN AS A CHRISTIAN. 175 

rebukes, because regarded as mere perfuuctory dicta, the nec- 
essary professional attitude towards evil doing. The same 
words come with telling force from the doctor's lips, from the 
fellow layman, who professes to be on, and is expected to 
occupy no higher moral or spiritual plane than his fellows. 
This, too, from one who has helped his hearer or his listener's 
dear ones, who has won at least a right to an indulgent hear- 
ing, as our Lord did, first doing a physical good as an earnest 
of a possible spiritual healing. Christ went about doiug 
good, physical good, healing all manner of bodily infirmities, 
and then he taught spiritual truths; let the followers of the 
good Physician go and do likewise. 

This method of proving, and then teaching Christianity, 
old as our Lord's time, well recognized by many in the so- 
called dark ages, is again coining into vogue for the heathen 
abroad. Why not employ it for the heathen at home ? 

Must, then, the doctor go about first prescribing and then 
preaching ? Far from it ! Let him strive to live the life of 
Christ. Let him boldly denounce sin, or error when it con- 
fronts him, not seek it out for attack. While not talking 
cant, when religion is the topic of conversation, quietly let it 
be seen on which side he stands, but avoid worthy controversy. 
Let it be clearly seen that he first thinks of others' good be- 
fore his own, and in nine cases out of ten both his patients and 
the public will recognize that he is actuated by other motives 
than those of worldly policy ; will by observation or inquiry 
learn what is the main-spring of his actions, and he will preach 
daily that best of all sermons, a good life. 

Are there none but Christians who in any measure fulfil 
the ideal which I have attempted to delineate? No fair- 
minded man can deny that irreligious men, nay infidels, at 



176 C. B. XAyCKEDE. 

times are noble examples of uprightness and morality. But 
they are this only in virtue of what they have unconsciously 
imbibed from the Christian atmosphere in which they have 
lived, and in which all our literature has been produced. It 
is as absurd to deny this influence as for one of us to contend 
that we do not owe our physical lives to the oxygen of the air 
we breathe, because we do not recognize its presence and do 
not understand its properties, nay choose in our wilful ignor- 
ance to deny its actual existence. Of course these remarks 
are not intended to apply to the ancient heathen examples of 
eminent morality and uprightness, yet these men reached such 
moral altitudes by virtue of their belief in the existence of 
something more than this physical universe. 

Will every or any Christian physican be perfect ? Will 
he always live up to his convictions ? Does any worldly man ? 
Xo ! Spiritual, like natural maturity, is a gradual process, 
so that although the Christian may fall, yet shall he rise 
again, and if he strives to become as a little child he shall 
enter the Kingdom of Heaven, not only hereafter, but here, 
and shall at the end hear the welcome words, "Well done, 
good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful in a few 
things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord." 

In conclusion, let me endeavor to correct some misappre- 
hensions under which irreligious men seem to labor. Ko true 
Christian plumes himself upon being more righteous than his 
brother-sinners. It is quite the reverse. Instead of thinking 
himself better, he knows he is worse, for his sins are against 
light. That which he is striving to do, his real working rule, 
despite what worldly men may say he ought to do and to be, is 
" If, by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the 



THE PHYSICIAN AS A CHRISTIAN. 177 

dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were 
already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend 
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Breth- 
ren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one 
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reach- 
ing forth for those things which are before, I press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.'' 
If St. Paul chose to express his idea of Christian endeavor and 
what his own religious position was by these sentences, we 
ought to be satisfied, and others abandon sneering at those who 
strive not to be better than their fellows, but better than they 
themselves have been in the past. 

The second fact is, that because there are unworthy chil- 
dren of the kingdom, the world has no right to consider all are 
hypoerites and base. The parable of the tares, and also that of 
the net full of divers fishes, both good and bad, shows this. 
And who are we to judge ? What do we know of any man's 
temptations, struggles or falls; " to his own master he standeth 
or falleth, yea he shall be holden up," and how do we know 
how others view our actions ! n i i 

Let us each strive to attain the full measure of the stature 
of a Christian and let our fellows settle their own affairs with 
the Father of all, who is infinitely more merciful in his judg- 
ments than man. - 



WHY SHOULD A TEACHER BE A CHRISTIAN? 

DR. ELMER E. BROWN. 

Delivered March 20, 1892. 

A question like this, implying that a teacher may not be 
a Christian, would have sounded very strange three or four 
centuries ago in the ears of any Christian community. It 
would have been a strange question to raise in any of the 
Universities in Christian lands. Why should a teacber be a 
Christian? It went without saying that he must not only be 
a Christian but have taken holy orders as well. But times 
have changed. I dare say one of those old, mediaeval worth- 
ies, whether clerical or civil or royal, would find it hard to 
adjust his ideas to this new order of things; and it is well-nigh 
certain he would fail to realize how much more significant the 
Christianity of a teacher becomes when it involves his own 
free choice and is no longer a matter of course. 

I wish to offer as my first answer to this question that, if 
I rightly understand the state of the case, a teacher should be 
a Christian for the same reasons that would lead any other 
man, woman, or child to be a Christian. A teacher is a man 
before he is a teacher — a man or a woman, standing up before 
God and the world in the simple responsibility of manhood, of 
womanhood. And any teacher who is less than this has not be- 
gun to be a teacher yet in the true sense of the word. Why, then, 
should a teacher be a Christian? Why should any being formed 
in the image of God be a Christian ? This is the question to be 



WHY SHOULD A TEACHER BE A CHRISTIAN? 179 

answered first. After that we may find special reasons, and 
they are not few, why a teacher, because of his calling, finds 
this obligation resting on him in a special and peculiar form. 

To the first question, then — Why should a teacher or 
why should any man be a Christian in view of the simple fact 
of his humanity ? — my answer may seem old-fashioned, but 
such as it is I will speak it out. 

After all our theorizing, after all our science, after all 
our theology or rejection of theology, the unconquerable fact 
remains that we have sinned. 

We may study sin in its psychological and ethical bear- 
ings, we may stake it out and fence it into its appropriate pen 
in our systems of metaphysics, and then flatter ourselves with 
the common fallacy that a fact explained is a fact overthrown; 
but our conscience still assures us there is guilt resting upon 
us. We cannot shift the responsibility, for we know in our 
hearts that we have sinned. We have done the things that 
we ought not to have done and have left undone the things 
that we ought to have done. I pray God, He will send us one 
breath of Heaven's pure air this morning to clear away what- 
ever mists of speculation we have allowed to obscure our con- 
sciences, that we may have the clearer view of our responsibil- 
ity and of our need. 

Let us note some of the strong words of Scripture upon 
this fact of human sinfulness: "As it is written, there is none 
righteous, no, not one. . They are all gone out of the 

way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that 
doeth good, no, not one, . . Now we know, that what 
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the 
law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may 
become guilty before God. . . For there is no difference. 



180 E. E. BROWN. 

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. . ... 
Wherefore the law is holy, and the? commandment, holy and 
just and good.. Was then that which is good made death unto: 
me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin-, working 
death in me by that which is good; that sin by the command- 
ment might become exceeding sinful. . . I find then a 
law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I 
see another law in my members, warring against the law of my 
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which 
is in my members. Oh wretched man that I am !. who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ?" 

[Part of the 3d and 7th chapters of the Epistle to the. 
Romans.] 

This is not a pleasant subject to dwell upon. But untold 
harm has been done by glossing it, over. If there were not 
hope of better things, it would be but a devilish performance 
to hold up before men a picture of their shame and misery. 
The gospel is faithful to the truth in that it takes men where 
they are and tells them of their guilt. It is faithful to .the 
larger truth in that it tells of hope for those whom sin has 
brought to ruin. When John the Baptist came to prepare 
the way for one mightier than himself, his message was 
"Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When 
the Lord sent out the twelve before his face, "they ..went* 
out, and. preached that men should repent." When Jesus 
after the imprisonment of John, "came into Galilee, preach- 
ing the gospel of the kingdom of God," he said, "Repent 
ye, and believe the gospel." Here is the starting point for > 
every one,, be he accountant or emperor or chimney-sweep or 
teacher,? who, finding himself in this life-, desires to live. . I 



WHY SHOULD A TEACHER BE A CHRISTIAN? 181 

would that some one of the pure in heart, who see God every 
day and whose lips are touched with a coal from off His altar, 
might speak to us on this theme this morning, His words 
would not be cold and measured but would go home to all 
hearts. I doubt not some of you, listening to such a one, would 
lay aside for a day the scientific inquiry into phenomena or 
the aesthetic contemplation of the world, and cry out from the 
depths of life-long need, " What must I do to be saved from 
sin?" 

This, then, is my first reason for urging teachers that they 
be Christians first: Because of sin; because of the forgiveness 
and deliverance which has been brought to men by Jesus 
Christ; because that here, as I believe, in repentence toward 
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, is the beginning 
of all true life. 

Not only on account of sin and its forgiveness do I believe 
a man should be a Christian, but also on account of faith. In 
the words just quoted from the great apostle, it was not only 
repentence toward God that was preached, but equally faith 
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I remember seeing a little boy 
come pale and trembling into school. It was his first day in 
that school. His face and bearing told a story of his sorry lit- 
tle life up to thatmoment. He had been scolded and cuffed ever 
since he could remember. He was afraid to speak or move for 
fear of violating some rule. I believe his mother was kind at 
heart, but her very righteousness had scared the boy. What 
change came over his life under the care of the patient and 
gentlewoman who was now his teacher. Trembling, fear, 
misery, were changed to confidence and happiness. The sun- 
shine of life chased away the shadows fron his face and heart. 
We children of a larger growth become morbid and fearful 



182 E. E. BROWN. 

when the thought of our sius is kept ever before us. We may 
even grow morbid and sentimental if we dwell exclusively on 
the thought of God's love and forgiveness. But a healthy and 
genuine faith tones up the spirit of a man and nerves him for 
noble deeds. 

There are two aspects of faith which come out of daily 
life. One is conviction, the other confidence. Confidence as 
we commonly use the word is faith in persons. Conviction is 
faith in reality without reference to personal feelings. The 
most of the great questions of a lifetime have to be answered not 
on the ground of demonstrable fact, of certain knowledge, but on 
the ground of half knowledge, half faith — to the best of one's 
knowledge and belief . So a man's strong and intelligent con- 
victions, where the way is dim with mist, may have greater 
significance for his success in life than his certain knowledge 
in things that are plain and easy. And convictions on the 
higher plane work down on the lower planes with deepening 
and ennobling power. Commercial insight is a good thing. 
Let high political principle be added, and the view of the mere 
man of business is broadened and elevated thereby. A.dd a 
sound moral sense, beyond what is necessarily involved in the 
others, and the affairs of business, and public policy are brought 
into truer perspective, convictions in these domains are charged 
with greater meaning. Now let the convictions be raised to 
the realm of the divine, let them be sober and sincere, and see 
how new order, light and certainty are introduced into all the 
subordinate concerns of life, by bringing them into relations 
with the center of all things. So much for faith as conviction. 
In like manner faith as confidence is good and beautiful in the 
commonest things of life. The confidence of a child in its 
parents, of a friend in his friend, gives courage and joy to the 



WHY SHOULD A TEACHER BE A CHRISTIAN ? 183 

heart. The sight of a great leader of men putting his trust in 
the general right-mindedness of countrymen in things political, 
a William of Orange, a Lincoln, a Gladstone, is truly inspir- 
ing. Let confidence be advanced beyond the mere relations 
of earth, let it be centered in God, and the light caught from 
the Father's face will shine down through all lower faiths and 
loves, transfiguring them into the likeness of Heaven. Faith 
as conviction will prompt a man to be a Christian because it 
is right. Faith as confidence persuades a man to be a Chris- 
tian because the love of Christ constraineth. The true faith 
of the Christian is conviction and confidence in one — right 
joined with love — and fixed on the righteous and loving God 
our Savior. This is the faith that re-makes lives after the 
image of Christ our Lord. For the sake of transforming faith 
like this I would urge men and teachers to enter the Christian 
life. 

I will mention but one more reason here. Be a Christian 
because of sin and its forgiveness, because of faith, and finally 
because of permanence. The desire of man for eternal life is 
no mean desire. It is a noble aspiration, a true and manly 
instinct. The shallow and trifling run after the things of a 
day; but earnest souls strive for those things that endure. 

Ruskin says in speaking of Architecture: "Every human 
action gains in honor, in grace, in all true magnificence by its 
regard to things that are to come. It is the far sight, the 
quiet and confident patience, that, above all other attributes, 
separate man from man, and near him to his Maker; and there 
is no action nor art, whose majesty we may not measure by this 
test. Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build 
forever." 

I take it our ambition in the making of a life should not 



184 E. E-. BROWN. 

be lower than in the building of a house. And how shall we 
build forever? The world passeth away. The trust that rests 
even on princes among men is but -vain. To whom shall we 
go but to Him who has the words of eternal life. The world 
passeth away, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for- 
ever. 

My time is half gone and I have said nothing about the 
special obligation resting upon teachers. But the time thus 
spent is not wasted if the one word that I had in mind to speak 
has come home to your hearts. It is more than half the work 
of a teacher that he begin by being a noble, Christian man. 

Now how is the obligation of following Christ increased by 
the fact that one is a teacher? The true teacher is moved to 
his work by a high and sacred love of his pupils. His heart 
goes out to them in all their needs. Their interests are his 
own,. The great facts of sin, and faith and immortality are 
facts for each of them as much as for himself. If these facts 
prompt him to enter the Christian life on his own accouut, they 
prompt him as many times over as the number of pupils in his 
charge, to be a Christian for their sake. He knows their con- 
flicts with sin, and often their surrender, better perhaps than 
their fathers and mothers can know. It calls for all his faith 
to believe that wrong already deeply fixed can be uprooted and 
forgiven. His best efforts often seem but things of a day, 
erased at night like chalk marks from a black-board and leav- 
ing no trace behind. What hope has he of permanence, but 
in bringing each day's work at its close and laying it with sim- 
ple trust in the hands of his Father in Heaven. 

It is such a life as this that has glorified the work of the 
great teachers down through all the ages. 

Comenius is said to have " consecrated himself to infancy," 



WHY SHOULD A TEACHER BE A CHRISTIAN ? 185 

and to have felt that he was working "for the regeneration of 
humanity." 

The gentlemen of Port Royal engaged with extraordinary 
zeal and intelligence in the work of their " Little Schools, " 
feeling that they were saving the souls of their young charges 
from the greatest danger. " We must always pray for souls," 
said one of them, "and always be on the watch, standing guard 
as in a city menaced by the enemy. On the outside the devil 
makes his rounds." 

La Salle organized his Christian Schools and led the way 
with faith and zeal and self sacrifice for the efforts of the Cath- 
olic church toward the education of the little children of the 
poor. 

Pestalozzi in the days of his greatest poverty and depres- 
sion held fast to his purpose to teach those poorer than himself, 
stayed in his mind with the thought that he was performing a 
religious duty. "Christ teaches us," he wrote, "by his exam- 
ple and doctrine to sacrifice not only our posessions but our- 
selves for the good of others." 

Dean Stanley writes of Thomas Arnold, "The relation of 
an instructor to his pupils was to him, like all the other rela- 
tions of human life, only a healthy state when subordinate to 
their common relation to God. 'The business of a school- 
master,' he used to say, 'no less than that of a parish minister, 
is the cure of souls.' " 

Mary Lyon gave her days and nights, her strength, her all, 
to the end that young women might have opportunities of high- 
er education, and still more that they might rise to higher Chris- 
tian character and service. 

Examples might be multiplied indefinitely. Among the 
rank and file of our teachers to-day like motives are by no 



186 E. E. BROWN. 

means rare. Witness the high ground taken at the outset of 
the late meeting of the association of teachers of this state, and 
maintained throughout the sessions of that gathering. 

The great majority of American teachers are engaged in 
public schools and in these schools the teaching of religious 
creeds is prohibited by law. Why should a teacher in a public 
school be a Christian? It is generally agreed that the chief 
business of the public schools is to train up citizens to be not 
only intelligent but moral. But this most important problem 
of the schools is also the most difficult. We can train pupils 
to right habits of thought; how can we insure information of 
right habits of action? Some things in this direction we cer- 
tainly can do. Through our school discipline we can secure the 
exercise of some of the most obvious and objective virtues. 
By skillful instruction and questioning we can accustom our 
pupils to pass correct ethical judgments. Through instruction 
in history and literature we can set before them high ideals of 
life. A right mechanism of daily routine, sound judgment, 
and high ideals; these three steps once taken, it is but one step 
further to the realizing of ideals of personal character. And 
just here, at this last, essential step, in critical cases our sys- 
tem breaks down and can go no further. What can the public 
school do beyond this point? It can go a little further still, but 
that little further cannot be expressed in formulas or defined 
in a course of study. After instruction and training have done 
their best, the true teacher has still the power of imparting by 
a subtle, sympathetic influence, somewhat of his own spirit to 
the children in his care. This is the necessary condition of 
efficient moral training in public schools. This is the fine edge 
of the art of all great educators. Such moral influence as this 
violates no constitutional provision regarding the separation of 



WHY SHOULD A TEACHER BE A CHRISTIAN? 187 

church and state. Id conflicts with no decision of the courts. 
Against such teaching there is no law. It satisfies the claims 
of those who emphasize the demand that public schools be 
unsectarian. 

But there is strong demand from another party in the state 
that non-sectarianism be not made equivalent to irreligion. If 
the requirement on the first named side that instruction be 
non-sectarian is a just demand — and in the name of freedom and 
equal rights, I believe it is fully justified; — this counter re- 
quirement that the school shall not be irreligious is also a just 
demand, in the name of that Christian faith which gave us our 
schools and stands as the surest ground of equal rights and 
freedom. And these are not opposing policies. In the Chris- 
tian teacher both demands are in a large sense satisfied. For 
the highest morality is Christian morality. The spirit in the 
teacher which, imparted to a school, will do the most for both 
intelligence and morality is the humble, reverent, earnest, 
loving spirit of the truly Christian man or woman. And if 
this be not the teaching of a creed it teaches more of the faith 
than any creed. The minister of Christ who turns many to 
righteousness is he who imparts the most of the spirit of Christ, 
by giving the most of himself, imbued in every fibre of his 
being with" that spirit. If we had distinct religious teaching 
in the schools, this would still be the best part of it; and as 
between the formal teaching of the creeds without this spirit, and 
the imparting of this spirit without formal teaching of the creeds, 
from the standpoint of the faith we would unhesitatingly choose 
the latter. "Where Christian people and Christian colleges devote 
a part of their wealth and strength to training teachers for the 
public schools, who are at once true to our laws and the spirit of 
our institutions, and true to Christ and filled with his spirit — I 



188 E. E. BROWN. 

know not whether the immediate result is increase in the member- 
ship of churches; but the ultimate result will be the spread of true 
and living faith, the surest defense of the church, the soundest 
prop of the state, the assurance of the healthiest morality. 

But there is one thing more I wish to say regarding the 
Christian teacher in the public schools. While our schools are 
non-sectarian, and rightly so, let us not be beguiled into a 
hasty judgment on the spirit of our laws and institutions, so 
as to admit that Christian teaching is excluded from those 
schools. The catechism and articles of faith are excluded; I 
grant it and rejoice it is so. The reading of the Bible as a 
religious observance or a means of instruction is forbidden in 
many of the schools; I grant it- — in many of the schools — but 
not in all and not in half of them; and if I taught where it is 
so forbidden, I would accept the condition in good faith, how- 
ever unnecessary or unfortunate I might think such provision 
from my point of view. But Christian teaching still is not 
shut out. Let the laws be complied with in their letter and 
in their spirit, not unwillingly but heartily. But when the 
critic of the schools reads into the laws a veto on religion , an 
interdiction in the schools of what is best in modern thought 
and highest in modern civilization, I deny the interpretation. 
These laws were not passed in the interest of infidelity but of 
freedom. The legislators who voted for them were not in the 
main enemies of religion. They were not men who either for 
themselves or their children would have the state crush out 
the best part of the sweetness and the hope and the inspiration 
of our literature, our culture and our civilization. The state is 
not the enemy of religion. The separation of church and 
state has not shut up the state against all recognition of relig- 
ion in any form or manner. Men may see the further secular- 



WHY SHOULD A TEACHER BE A CHRISTIAN? 189 

izatiou of the state if they will, but so long as the s-tate is not 
irreligious do not ask the schools of the state to be. 

But there is another reason why the schools of this Chris- 
tian land in this Christian age must not be unchristian. The 
state puts certain persons into its schools to teach. It does not 
demand, and it has no right to demand, that these teachers 
teach in such a way as merely to bring up citizens for the state. 
A teacher must teach in accordance with true principles of 
education. It may fairly be questioned whether the state has 
any right to determine how a teacher shall teach than it has 
to determine how a farmer shall cultivate the soil, or how a 
captain shall sail his ship. In the one case the principles of 
navigation must be the guide, in the other the rules of agricul- 
ture, in the third the science of teaching. Within reasonable 
limits the laws of the art should be supreme. It does not then 
appear that the teacher is forbidden, whatever the science of 
education may direct, to mention the Bible or the name of God 
in his school- room. If Christ is the ideal of manhood in mod- 
ern civilization, it would seem fair that the teacher in a modern 
school be not required to limit himself to a reference to lower 
ideals. The best literature is full of the spirit of Christ, and, 
the best teaching avails itself of that literature and seeks to 
realize the Christian standard. , And if the teacher shall send 
out his pupils from the common schools with the assurance 
that there are other and higher things to learn in life than the 
best books of the school contain, with open minds and heart 
for whatever instruction the various relations in life, the state, 
society, the church, can give to them, it will be a sign that he 
has cared for the continued growth and expansion of their 
intellect, and still more, for steady striving after higher and 
the highest things. 



190 E. E. BROWN. 

Let me in closing illustrate the thought I have to pre- 
sent. I received a letter a few weeks ago, the handwriting of 
which looked like that of one of my nearest friends; but the 
lines were so wavering and uncertain I feared at first that he 
was ill. This is the way the letter ran — I give you a part of 
it word for word : 

"Dear Uncle Elmer, — I hope you are very well. 

Papa is holding my hand but I say what to write. M 

and K have two great big dolls. Papa reads to us 

almost every night. It is 'most time to go to bed. 

Good-by," 
and it was signed in printed letters all her own by my friend's 
little five-year-old girl. I don't know when I have received a 
letter that touched me as did that one from the little wee thing 
who called me uncle. It is not very much of the world that 
she has seen and she knows very little of school, but she has 
found a true philosophy of life for teachers as well as taught. 
Those little ones, our pupils, put their hands into ours and 
what they write will bear marks of our guidance. And I 
know nothing better that we teachers can do than to place our 
hand in that of the kind Heavenly Father and while putting 
our own words into the message, as He would have us do, still 
try our best not to jar or interfere while He writes the lines 
for us. 



SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS. 



PROF. FLOYD R. MECHEM. 



Delivered April 9, 1893. 



The sentiment which I have chosen as the starting point 
for what I have to say to-day, is contained in one of the old 
maxims of the law. Maxims have been said to be the con- 
densed wisdom of nations, the crystalization of truths which 
the experience of ages has painfully and slowly evolved, and 
which have finally come to be regardsd as so self-evident and 
necessary as to require no other authority than their own in- 
herent force. 

Conceptions of truth, however, almost invariably suffer 
from the attempt to put them into language. The moment 
they begin to crystalize, that moment they begin to lose their 
power of growth and expansion. At best, the maxims of one 
age can but represent the highest conception of the thougnt 
and progress of that age, and they need frequent revision and 
correction to enable them to keep pace with the growth of 
knowledge. The sententious wisdom of one age, therefore, 
ought not to be accepted as the best expression of the wisdom 
•of a succeeding age. Maxims are dangerous bases of reliance, 
for though they may express the truths of to-day they are 
very apt to express but the half-truths of to-morrow. 

The mental and moral condition of the race, like its phys- 
ical condition, is the result of evolution. Each age shows the 
bigh-water mark which the tide of civilization has reached. 



192 F. R. MECHEM. 

Slowly, painfully, but, in the main, certainly, does knowledge 
advance. Of no science is this more true than of the science 
of the law. Starting with rude and primitive conceptions, 
the common law which forms the great body which regulates 
the ordinary affairs of men, has developed with the race, 
though keeping always a little behind its most marked 
advance. Looking back upon it from this standpoint, it is 
often pitiful to observe by what hard methods its progress has 
been made; how it has had to grope and feel its way along, and 
to what erroneous and often fatal conclusions it has been led 
in its efforts to tind the light. It has come a devious way, and 
all along its course may be seen the evidence of aberrations 
which would be difficult to understand if we did not at the 
same time observe equally pronounced departures along the 
other lines which mark the progress of the race. 

Our common law found its origin among a rude, but also 
a hardy and liberty -loving people. SomethiDg in their source 
and much in their insular position, gave the English race the 
characteristic of a sturdy and somewhat testy assertion and 
defense of what they believe to be their personal rights of lib- 
erty and property. When restrained by proper limitations, 
this quality is productive of a national character marked by 
valuable attributes of courage, enterprise and progress, but if 
unrestrained, it tends naturally to produce habits of self-ag- 
grandizement and disregard for the rights of others which are 
fatal to the true progress of the whole people. 

Many and fierce were the struggles by which the English 
people secured their rights of liberty and property, and the 
more hardly they were attained, the more valuable and para- 
mount did they naturally seem when once secured. 

Having once established the principle of the individual 



SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS. 193 

right of property and liberty, the step is a short and natural 
one which leads to the haughty and defiant inquiry: May not 
a man do what he will with his own? To the individual in- 
terested, there seems usually but one answer and that the 
affirmative one. If this personal liberty of which I boas.t is 
really mine, as I claim it is; if this property which I possess 
is really mine, as I have been and am ready to maintain 
against all comers; why may I not do with either as I will ? 
Does not the very statement of the right necessarily exclude 
all limitations? If I am subject to restraint, not self imposed, 
then I am not free, and this freedom of which I have boasted 
is an illusion. If I may not do as I will with this property 
which I have called my own, then it is not my own, but partly 
some one else's. There seems here to be an inconsistency, 
which the individual will be disposed to settle by denying the 
right of any restraint, and by asserting in all its fullness the 
doctrine of absolute independence. 

However sound or salutary this doctrine might prove in 
a community where but one person had, or claimed, the right 
to exercise it, it is obvious that in a community where many 
claimed to possess and exercised the same right, conflict is 
inevitable; for its exercise in full by one must often operate to 
deny to others an equal exercise. Restraint of some kind is 
therefore obviously indispensable. It is an old struggle which 
has been seen in many departments, — this struggle between 
liberty, properly so regarded, and that which is often de- 
manded in the name of liberty, but which in fact is nothing 
else than unrestrained license. 

Realizing this necessity for restraint, the Euglish law, after 
much tentative endeavor, has laid down the rule which finds 
its crystalized form of expression in the maxim : Sic utere tuo 



194 F. E. MECHEM. 

ut alienum non laedas, — so use your own as not to injure 
another. This, says Blackstone, speaking of the English law. 
is the only restriction which the genius of a free nation, who 
claim the right of using their own property as they please, 
has placed upon the ownership of property or the exercise of 
any other public or private right. And our own Chief Jus- 
tice Waite has said that this maxim furnishes the rule by 
which every member of society possesses and enjoys his property. 

Upon its face, this maxim seems so reasonable and just that 
we might almost conclude that here we had found an universal 
rule by which the legal exercise of the rights of property and 
of personal liberty could in all cases be determined. But un- 
fortunately it is not found to be universally applicable, and 
one learned judge has gone so far as to say that, though it is a 
very good moral precept, it is utterly useless as a legal guide. 
Another has said that "its real use is to warn us against an 
abuse of the more popular adage that 'a man has a right to do 
as he likes with his own' which errs more dangerously on the 
other side." How far it falls short of being an universal rule 
may be made evident by a few illustrations which may also 
serve to indicate the need of some other limitation. 

My neighbor builds himself a house upon a lot adjoining 
mine which is still vacant. His lot is so situated that across 
my vacant lot he obtains not only a most delightful view 
which adds as well to the pecuniary as to the esthetic value of 
his home, and also furnishes his chief supply of light and air. 
I afterwards determine to build upon my lot, and do so, neces- 
sarily or unnecessarily, in such a manner as to entirely cut off 
his view and his main supply of light and air, thereby inflict- 
ing not only personal discomfort, but serious pecuniary 
injury. The law gives him no redress against me. 



SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS. 195 

He has a spring upon his land which for many years has 
furnished to him and his cattle refreshing draughts of pure 
water. It is shaded and protected by a tree upon my land 
and without its shade the spring must fail before the fierce 
attacks of the summer sun. For my own purposes, I cut 
down the tree and thereby destroy the spring. I have so 
used my own property as] to seriously injure his, but he is 
without remedy. 

One of two rival banks quietly collects a large amount of 
the notes of the other, and then, with the intention to injure, 
presents them all for payment at a time when it is known that 
it will imperil if not destroy the credit of the other; yet the 
other is remediless. 

A business man is doing a small but profitable business in 
a certain locality which will not support two such establish- 
ments. A rival, with greater means, establishes himself next 
door and then deliberately undersells the other till he drives 
him unto financial ruin. For this the law has no remedy. 

One man, by no active misrepresentation, but by that 
kind of seductive talk which the law, (which tolerates much 
lying in trade) sometimes denominates "seller's praise", in- 
duces another to make a bargain which he knows will prob- 
ably prove, and which does prove, disastrous to a person of 
the other's means and condition. The law supplies no rem- 
edy. 

A profitable stage route, and with it a number of success- 
ful inns along the way, is robbed of its value because of the 
opening of a railway through the neighborhood, but the rail- 
way company is not liable to the stage owner and the inn 
keeper. 

And so I mio-ht <_ro on, but these illustrations are sufficient 



196 P." R. MECHEM. 

to show that the maxim of the law does not furnish an uni- 
versal rule. I do not mean to say that the law in these re- 
spects is defective, or that it ought to undertake, in more 
cases than it already does, to throw a kind of parental guard- 
ianship about the frailer members of the community, or to 
restrain the exercise of rights of liberty or property simply 
because some one thereby suffers an incidental injury. 
Neither do I stop to inquire whether, for some of these cases, 
there is not a higher standard than the law to which our human 
laws ought more and more to be made to approximate. I 
simply wish to use this as a starting point from which to enter 
another field. 

We claim to be free moral agents. We assert that we 
possess a moral and intellectual freedom which is of a no less 
exclusive kind than that physical freedom which it was the 
purpose of this old maxim of the law to restrain and control. 
But is it more unrestrained than that? Is there no maxim in 
this field which demands that here also we shall so use the 
liberty which we possess as not to injure others? This, like 
the other, is an old question and has been so ably dealt with 
that it might seem superfluous if not presumptuous for us to 
raise it here, were it not for the fact that through perpetual 
agitation the truth is sometimes made more clear. 

I take it for granted that every one recognizes the exist- 
ence of certain limitations and restraints which each individual 
puts upon his own action for the purpose of promoting his own 
happiness and well-being, but is there not something beyond 
that? Surely in the moral and intellectual world, we will not 
be content to state the rule that we are so to use our own as to 
make the most of it for ourselves. Self-advancement and de- 
velopment are good things, but they are not the highest 



SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS. 197 

things. Each one certainly owes something to his fellows, 
but the question of difficulty is, "What and How Much ?" 
Does the maxim of the common law apply here also ? Are we 
here so to use our own as not to injure another? Upon its 
face again this seems a just and not difficult limitation, but 
what does it involve? Is it a practical and practicable test ? 
May the business man, in these days of intense competition, 
when each man seems compelled to strain every effort to suc- 
ceed, apply to himself the rule that he is to use his talents, 
his opportunities, his superior energy, his powers of organi- 
zation and control, in such a way that he will not injure 
another? May he not legitimately say that this rule is w T ell 
enough in the moral field, but that it will not do as a rule of 
business? May he not say that the greater part of the profit 
which he is striving so hard to acquire must be made at the 
expense of some one else, — that competition is so bitter as not 
to leave enough for all, and that each man must look out for 
himself, leaving every other man to do likewise? 

May not the lawyer, intent upon the winning of causes, 
say that for him, too, the rule is too severe for practicable ap- 
plication ;— that it is his duty to his client, as well as to him- 
self, to do everything that can legally be done to advance his 
client's interest, leaving the opposing counsel to do the same 
for his client, and the judge to see that, between the efforts of 
both, in some way justice shall be evolved, and that if it is 
not, it is simply the fault of the system which like all things 
human must sometimes miscarry? If you say to him that it is 
his duty to his fellow man to see that by his talent, his energy, 
his technical astuteness, he does not further the cause of in- 
justice, may he not properly say to you that with that he has 
nothing whatever to do, — that his domain is practical and 



198 F. R. MECHEM. 

not abstract justice, — that law is one thing and morals another? 

If you say to the strong man, whose appetites and passions 
are completely under his control, that he should not indulge 
in even the moderate enjoyment of his tastes or appetites in 
certain directions, because his brother man, who is not so 
strong as he, in attempting to follow his example, will be 
unable to restrain himself, and will bring disgrace and ruin 
upon himself and family; — if you say this, may he not prop- 
erly reply, What is that to me? Am I to deny myself that 
which gives me pleasure and does me no harm simply because 
that weak fool cannot restrain himself? May he not legiti- 
mately ask of you, Am I my brother's keeper? 

If you say to the woman absorbed in fashionable pursuits, 
that she ought not to so fully indulge her love for pleasure 
and display, lest she tempt some other woman, by her example, 
to foolish, wasteful, or, perchance, wicked practices, in her 
attempts to follow it — may she not also say, Am I my sister's 
keeper? Am I to restrain that love of pleasure and that de- 
light in the beautiful which were given me by the Creator, and 
in which I find so much happiness, simply because some other 
woman, for whom these things were not intended, may permit 
herself to go astray? 

If you say even to the thinker: — "However strong may 
be your reasoning faculties, however confident you may be 
of the absolute truth of your own conclusions, there are sub- 
jects upon which you would do well not to be too positive in 
your assertions or too loud or public in your attacks; — there 
are beliefs which others hold dear that you may properly let 
alone; — lest you deceive some weaker brother by leading him 
to abandon ancient faiths only to find that he has not the 
strength to climb to your vaunted heights; — if you say this to 



SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS. 199 

him, may he not appropriately reply to you that the truth 
is never to be concealed, and that it is better for his brother to 
perish in his unbelief than to continue longer in those an- 
cient errors ? And in any event, may he not say like the 
others, Am I my brother's keeper? 

If you say to any person, in any situation, that in the 
matter of his choice of an occupation, his habits, his recre- 
ations and the general conduct of his life, he owes duties 
above and beyond his purely legal obligations, to see that 
in none of these concerns shall he so use his own powers and 
liberties as to do injury to others, may he not also say that 
these are matters of purely personal interest as to which he 
owes duties to no one but himself? 

And how are these questions to be answered? Am I, in 
any sense, to be made subject to such voluntary restrictions? 
May I not legimately and properly use my powers, my liberty, 
in any direction which promises to afford me the greatest suc- 
cess and happiness, without considering whether my brother 
does or does not mistake my example to his own hurt? Is it 
not enough for me that my motives meet with my own ap- 
proval, and that what I do results in no harm to me, and that 
I leave to my brother the same privileges and responsibilities? 
"Am I my brother's keeper?" 

This is an old question. It is as old as the race. Cain 
asked it, and in all ages since, men, sometimes Cains, and 
sometimes saints, have continued to ask it. It has been often 
asked as it then was, as an escape from personal responsibility 
for an acknowledged wrong, and it has often been asked, as I 
would have us ask it to-day, by men conscious of no wrong, but 
desiring simply to discover the full measure of their responsi- 
bility to their fellows. It has received various answers; the 



200 F. R. MECHEM. 

Cains have always answered it in the negative; the 
earnest, conscientious men have always answered it in the 
affirmative, and so it must be always answered. If there be a 
fatherhood of God, and a brotherhood of man, then each man 
is to some extent his brother's keeper. ''We that are strong," 
said St. Paul in his epistle to the Romans, " ought to bear the 
infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.' 9 "Let 
every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification." 
But more to the point, still, is this other rule of his, which may 
serve as an answer to many of our inquiries: "It is good 
neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything, whereby 
thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." 

We may then, I think, conclude that our old legal maxim 
may have an application in this field. We are here so to use 
our own as not to injure another. 

But is this a full statement of the obligation? This is but 
a negative statement. Is there not an affirmative one? I do 
not like these negative limitations. They savor of restraints 
externally applied, while limitations on the moral actions 
ought to come only from within. Moral rules, too, ought to 
be positive. They ought to be equivalent to a command. 
Instead of saying, Thou shalt not, there should be an ever 
present voice, too loud and too authorative to be ignored or 
disobeyed, saying to us continually, Thou shalt. The old 
Hebrew commandments were negative: Thou shalt not kill; 
thou shalt not covet; thou shalt not bear false witness, and the 
like; but when the great Lawgiver came, he wiped away all 
these prohibitions, excellent as they were, and in their place 
He put that one great affirmative rule, which includes these 
all and more: "A new commandment I give unto you, That 
ye love one another.'' 



SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS, 201 

In the presence of such a rule, how shallow seem the 
maxims of the law! Into what half truths, and partial state- 
ments, do they shrink ! A new commandment I give unto 
you, that ye love one another. Not that we simply refrain from 
unnecessary injury; not that we so use our own as merely 
not to injure another; not that we render unto every one 
his legal due. We are to do more, — there is to be some- 
thiDg spontaneous, full and generous. It is not to be limited 
by any rules, but is to be the voluntary outpouring of the 
heart overflowing with good will and love for others. 

How much this rule of love involves may well be recalled 
to our minds in those familiar words of St. Paul as given in 
the new version: "Love suffereth long, and is kind: love 
envieth not; love vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, doth 
not behave unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, 
taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, 
but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all 
things, endureth all things. Love never faileth. " 

Our human rules of conduct never raise us to this plane. 
We are neither long suffering nor kind, we envy others, we 
vaunt our own performances, we are puffed up with our own 
conceits, we behave unseemly, we constantly seek our own, we 
are easily provoked, we take account of evil; we bear little, 
we believe little, we endure little. Love never fails, but 
our human rules and standards fail constantly. Love antic- 
ipates the demand for justice; under our human rules justice 
has to be enforced. With all of our great and constantly 
growing mass of laws; with all of our complicated and ex- 
pensive system of machinery; with all of our great army of 
lawyers and judges, the most that we can accomplish is con- 
fessedly a tardy, partial and expensive kind of human justice. 



202 F. R. MECHEM. 

How incalculable the pecuniary gain if we could but substi- 
tute this rule of love for our imperfect and inefficient human 
rules; but more than that, what a gain in peace and good will, 
what a wealth of kindliness and happiness, what an era for all 
mental, moral and physical progress and development. 

Is the rule impractical? Is it good in theory but not 
in practice? Does it savor of a weak and effeminate senti- 
mentalism? So Ave are often told. But has it ever been 
fairly tried? There was One who tried it and lost his life by 
it. But was that necessarily the sign of failure? "He that 
loveth his life,'' He said, "shall lose it; and he that hateth 
his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." 

Judged by this rule that life was not a failure. For 
eighteen hundred years, the conviction has grown stronger 
and more universal, that instead of failure it was the highest 
kind of success — the type, in truth, of the only kind of suc- 
cess. It has fixed the standard of performance, and in all the 
succeeding years men, in constantly increasing numbers, have 
recognized it as at once the object of their hope and their 
despair, until to-day, in all the civilized regions of the globe, 
under various forms, with different ceremonies, but every 
where with the same common purpose, the great majority of 
the race is, at this very hour, engaged in contemplating anew 
the matchless excellence of the example set and in renewing 
its determination still more fully to work it into life. 

Is it then too vain a hope, too optimistic an illusion that 
this rule of love shall yet prevail? It would not be if each 
one would see that as to him it did prevail. That does not 
seem so difficult a matter, but it is an undertaking which has 
thus far proved too great or has been approached with too 
weak a purpose. 



SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDAS. 203 

Shall we then despair? Shall we acknowledge the weak- 
ness of the position and give over our efforts to maintain it? 
Let us rather see clearly that to make this rule prevail among 
men is the ultimate end and destiny of the race; that to this 
eud all true progress tends; that whatever makes for this, 
either with the individual or the race, is alone important; and 
without faltering and without despairing, let us follow the 
"Eternal which makes for Righteousness." 



THE PAKABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 

BY PROF B. M. THOMPSON. 

Delivered May 21, 1893. 

The unquestioned purpose of this parable was to indicate 
the relation in which man stands to his Creator. Christ likens 
it here, as he has done elsewhere, to the relation between 
father and sou. 

It would seem from the context that this parable was re- 
lated to an assembly made up largely of publicans and sinners, 
a class forming in that age, and, perhaps, in every age since, 
even to our own time, a majority of every assembly brought 
together by mere chance or idle curiosity. Jesus had, per- 
haps, been urging his hearers to repent, to cease to do evil 
and learn to do good, to refrain from violating the immutable 
laws which govern the spiritual world. He had, perhaps, 
emphasized the truth that obedience to those laws alone makes 
for happiness, and that disobedience necessarily and inevitably 
results in misery. Most of his hearers could, from their per- 
sonal experience probably, testify to the truth of this doctrine. 
But, they might naturally ask, if we determine to do better 
hereafter, what will it avail us ? Since we are being punished 
for past transgressions of the law, if we cease to transgress will 
the punishment cease ? It was to answer such questions that, 
maybe, the parable was given, to make clear that, while a 
violation of the law is punished, one violation does not make a 
second necessary, that disobedience may be followed by obedi- 



THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 205 

ence, and that obedience, even when lagging behind disobedi- 
ence will be encouraged and blessed, that the angels rejoice 
over a sinner who repents. 

To understand its full force and meaning we must place 
ourselves in the position of the persons to whom this parable 
was told ; surround ourselves with the social, political and 
religious laws and influences that hedged them in. Under the 
Mosaic law the father remained at the head of the household 
until his death, lawgiver, judge and priest- The command to 
obey father and mother was not confined to persons under 
twenty- one years of age, but rested upon all who had father 
or mother. When Isaac at the command of Abraham went 
with him to the mount to be offered as a sacrifice, he was 
not a youth, a stripling, but a mature man forty years of age 
and upwards. The entire earnings of the joint family 
belonged to the father as long as he lived, to be disposed of at 
his pleasure. Upon his death it was divided under fixed and 
definite laws governing the distribution of estates of inherit- 
ance. Those laws gave the father a right to dispose of a por- 
tion of his estate by will. But no son had a right to any of 
the family property during the life-time of his father, and it 
was his duty to remain under the control and direction of that 
father. 

All those laws and customs were perfectly familiar to 
those who listened to this parable. They understood that this 
younger son had no right to a portion of his father's living 
and no right to be emancipated from his father's control. In- 
deed, that so far as the law and filial duty were concerned, he 
was required to remain in his father's household, subject to 
his father's commands. It was, therefore, plain to them that 
when the younger son made the request, " give me the portion 



206 B. M. THOMPSON. 

of goods that falleth to me," it implied a desire on his part to 
be emancipated from parental control, from the law governing 
the Hebrew household, and that when the father assented, 
divided his living, he really emancipated his son and gave him 
permission and authority to gather all together and to depart, 
" not many days after," into a far country. It was thus 
plain to them that this young man stood in the same relation 
to his parental inheritance that every man holds with reference 
to the gifts he has received from his Maker, a free agent to 
do, or not to do, as he wills. 

What this young man did in that far country is presum- 
ably what he intended to do from the first, he wasted his sub- 
stance in riotous living. Why anyone should deliberately 
enter upon a course of life which he knows begins in folly and 
ends in ruin, we do not stop to consider. The curious in such 
matters can readily enquire of the first prodigal they meet. 
You will find that he is not necessarily vicious, but he is 
always lawless and destitute of self discipline and self control, 
or, if he possesses those powers, he suffers them to slumber. 
He is as regardless of the future as the savage who, if his 
wigwam is to-day supplied with food, eats and sleeps, arises 
and eats again, heedless of the fact that when his casual guest, 
plenty, shall depart, his old and habitual companions, hunger 
and want, will again take their places at his board. And thus 
the prodigal of the parable continued to waste and squander 
his portion until it all disappeared and then he went and 
joined himself to a citizen of that distant and alien country 
and fed swine, became the herder of unclean beasts, was filthy 
and ragged and withal hungry and no man gave unto him, so 
that at last he gladly shared with the hogs the husks they ate. 
With most prodigals feeding swine and eating husks is not fol- 



THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 207 

lowed by anything better. They continue in that condition 
for a period and then comes a time when for them there are no 
more swine to feed, no more husks even to eat and they must 
needs miserably perish in that far-off country. They never 
come to themselves from the beginning to the end of their 
folly. But this prodigal came to himself and said, " I will 
arise and go to my father," and, apparently, he gave no fur- 
ther thought to swine and the husks that swine eat. 

As the prodigal was returning, his father saw him a great 
way off and ran to meet him and fell upon his neck and kissed 
him, brought him into the house and put shoes upon his feet, 
a robe upon his shoulders and a ring upon his hand, thus 
announcing that he was not a servant but a son and must be 
so regarded and treated. And then the father directs a feast 
to be made and commands that they kill the fatted calf. 
What a noble, generous and forgiving father had this prodigal 
son and such a father in heaven, this parable clearly teaches, 
have all the sons of men. But the theologian dwells more 
upon the cordial reception which this son received, than the 
lawyer is inclined to do. The lawyer's attention is called 
away from the feasting, the rejoicing, the father's gladness, 
to the condition, the legal condition, of the prodigal himself. 
He had come to himself and was again under his father's roof 
in his right mind, recognized as a son, wearing the insignia of 
heirship, a robe upon his shoulders and a ring upon his hand, 
but what was he heir to ? He had already received his por- 
tion and had wasted it in that far-off country, strewn it over 
the fields and along the hedge rows while sowing his wild oats. 
That portion was all gone, not even a husk from his last meal 
remained. What then was left? A loving father, sonship, 
heirship, a warm welcome. This was very much, but the 



208 B. M. THOMPSON. 

share of the living, which had been divided at his request, 
what of that ? The parable leaves us in no doubt. The father 
says to the elder son explicitly, " All that I have is thine. 
We are not rejoicing because we have an opportunity to divide 
our living again. What is here is yours. Your brother was 
lost and is found, was dead and is alive again, therefore we 
rejoice.'' 

It does not appear that a single farthing was given to this 
young man. Certainly not a farthing of the portion wasted 
could be returned to him, and he had no claim whatever upon 
the elder brother's portion. He was as poor as ever. There 
was given him an opportunity to share perhaps in future sav- 
ings. I am aware that the theologian takes a more hopeful 
view of the prodigal's situation and the theologian may be 
right. But assuredly it does not by any means appear clear 
from this parable that any prodigal who has wasted his love 
of truth, justice, virtue and decency in riotous living, has fed 
the unclean swine of depraved human passions and gladly filled 
his belly with the husks of sin, can by coming to himself and 
going to his father have the precious gifts of an innocent 
heart and a pure soul restored to him for the asking and not 
as a reward for a victory achieved after a long and weary bat- 
tle. If one walks into the fire and is burned, nature, a kind, 
and forgiving mother, will assauge the pain and heal the 
Wounds, but a scar remains — and yet the power and goodness 
of the Almighty may not be measured with a yard stick. 



SACRED MUSIC. 



PROF. A. A. STANLEY. 



Delivered June 4, 1893. 



Christianity has been termed not so much a religion as a 
revelation of the nature of God, and an unfolding of the pur- 
pose of a life held up as the ideal life towards which all lives 
should turn. 

The fullness of the revelation was made possible for three 
reasons. First, it supplemented and infused new life into the 
truth which formed the bases of preceding religions, notably 
Judaism. Second, it came at a time when the longing for 
immortality found expression in a philosophy which hinted 
at that which was now clearly revealed. Third, it was a 
revelation of man to himself. It thus rested upon all that 
was best in the old religions. It stimulated and gave new 
direction to exalted aspiration. It emphasized the importance 
of man, and revealed to him the true reason for his desire to 
express through the medium of art many of his finer feel- 
ings. 

The feeling for the beautiful, one of the purest attributes 
of the soul, found in this new and more complete revelation 
of God, a fullersatisf action than had been given by any 
preceding religion. Among other expressions of the beautiful 
we find music. It may be confidently asserted that the pos- 
sibilities of so subjective an art as music, could never have 
been developed, had there been no great uplifting of the soul 



210 A. A. STANLEY. 

— such an advancement of ideals as directly resulted from the 
teachings of Christianity. 

As soon as Christianity became the accepted religion, 
among the many questions of ceremonial observance came that 
of church music. Three of the earlier Popes, Sylvester, 
Ambrose and Gregory stand out in bold relief in this connec- 
tion. Sylvester by his singing schools laid the foundation 
upon which Ambrose and Gregory reared the structure of 
Ambrosian and Gregorian song. Properly two independent 
structures were erected by these men, for the Ambrosian 
chant with its strongly marked metrical structure differs radi- 
cally from the slowly moving — non-rhythmical — Gregorian 
tone. We discover in these two opposing conceptions of the 
nature of sacred song, the reasons for the two types of church 
music, which have from that time up to the present day, 
divided church musicians. The one conception may be 
observed in the ordinary hymn tune, the other in the German 
choral. 

The inevitable clashing of these fundamentally opposing 
types of song gave rise to many bitter controversies. These 
controversies finally resulted in a division of the church in so 
far as the musical service was concerned. Thus we find at the 
beginning of the church's history that the problem which 
confronts us today was considered one of the most important 
questions pressing for an answer, and that although the con- 
ditions differ, the essential points at issue are identical. 

That appropriate music is an aid to worship is well nigh 
universally admitted. That music formed a part of all the 
ceremonies of the religion of ancient peoples, that the charac- 
ter of the music employed at such ceremonies was discussed by 
philosophers, goes to prove that while the power of music to 



SACRED MUSIC. 211 

express religion aspiration was recognized, it was distinctly 
understood that religious music differed from secular. All 
this proves no less forcibly that the converse proposition 
that inappropriate music is a hindrance to devotion, must also 
be true. Historically we find that the various councils of the 
church recognized these truths, and acrimonious discussions 
raged on these occasions, the question as to what was 
appropriate in church music evidently causing as much dissen- 
sion as any of the theological controversies. At the council of 
Trent we find the question had assumed such importance that 
the art music (as the elaborate musical forms created by the 
Netherlands school were called) was on trial and stood 
in danger of being entirely swept out of the church by the 
reactionary party which called for return to the old Gregor- 
ian chant. Strangely enough the Catholic church is in the 
midst of a similar agitation at the present time. 

The masses in use at that time were extremely complicat- 
ed and utterly devoid of inspiration. As a matter of fact the 
people took no interest in the music, and accompanied the sing- 
ing of the masses by ribald songs, and all sorts of blasphemous 
interpolations. Thus the act of worship had been degraded to 
a veritable saturnalia. That this revolt of the church dig- 
nitaries was timely will be admitted by all. Musicians are 
particularly interested in this council, for in the course of the 
discussion Palestrina's music was formally declared to be the 
purest model of church song. Thus the canons of sacred 
music were authoritatively decided for the Catholic church. 
Following out these canons we find that sacred music must pos- 
sess distinct and individual characteristics, harmonically, 
melodically and rhythmically. These differences, clearly de- 
fined in Palestrina's time became somewhat obliterated by the 



212 A. A. STANLEY, 

change from the so called church modes to our modern tonal- 
ities, and were lost sight of almost entirely during the form- 
ative period of the oratorio and opera. These two forms had 
at the beginning so much in common, that we are not sur- 
prised to find in the music of so great a composer as Haudel, 
but little difference between his religious and secular styles. 
This remark applies more particularly to the solo parts, for in 
his oratorio choruses we discern that nobility and dignity of 
style, which comports with the expression of exalted religious 
sentiment. Handel recognized the fact that the oratorio calls 
for the most sustained musical thought. -'The Messiah," 
"Israel in Egypt,'' ''Judas Maccabeus" and "Samson" are the 
fruits of his ripened genius, and the expressions of the sturdy 
religious conviction of the man's life. 

Handel by his training as an opera composer, and by his 
life as a man of the world, was more dominated by convention- 
alities, and less fitted to set up authoritative standards of mus- 
ical structure in the field of sacred music than Bach, whose 
genius was more reflective, and whose nature was more intro- 
spective and devout. While we admit the greatness of Han- 
del's "Messiah," Bach's cantatas, chorals and notably his 
Passion Music must be cited as the purest examples of sacr< d 
music extant. In these works we meet with a style totally 
distinct from any secular music. His music is however found- 
ed upon polyphony and is too complicated for general use. 
This style is the same as that dominating Palestrina's masses, 
and by its very nature is more in consonance with the dignified 
Gregorian chant, of which it is the fruit. The very nature of 
polyphonic music is opposed to that metrical regularity, which 
while it underlies rhythm of the highest type, is at the same 
time responsible for the musical forms which are in essence, 



SACRED MUSIC. 213 

not alone secular, but vulgar. The Passion Music of Bach 
will undoubtedly ever stand as the sublimest expression of 
sacred music human genius has ever conceived, a worthy and 
ideal interpretation of that pathetic story of suffering. Such 
music is, however, beyond the ordinary chorus and impossible 
for the congregation. 

The chorals of the Lutheran church are suited to the 
capacity of the ordinary congregation, and are as worthy of 
respect in their limited field as is the Passion Music in its wider 
sphere. These melodies, in many instances, were derived from 
folk-songs, and this fact may account for their popularity in 
those countries which possess rich treasures of these songs of 
the people. These folk-songs were many of them derived 
from the so-called sequences, which were extended vocal 
passages emphasizing the importance of the word Alleluia 
in the Gregorian chant. These folk-songs preserved the 
character of that religious chant, (which contained the germs 
of our modern music,) and were, therefore, admirably adapted 
for use in the service of the church. Again, many of these 
folk-songs were incorporated into the ritual of the Catholic 
church, as for example, the "Stabat Mater," "Dieslrae," etc. 
The music to these songs was often full of pathos, and was 
more often grave than gay. In fact, the melodies themselves 
seemed to be more suitable for the church than for any other use. 
The beautiful choral "O, Sacred Heart, Once Wounded," 
was originally a folk-song. All of them partook of the meas- 
ured dignity of the Gregorian chant. 

We must bear in mind that we have standards which 
should assist us in arriving at helpful conclusions, and to which 
we may confidently appeal. We may, in addition to the 
canons of musical composition (which cover the whole ques- 



214 A. A. STANLEY. 

tion,) refer to the standard of appropriateness, which Euskin 
calls "the golden corner-stone of architecture." 

Two factors are introduced at the present time which make 
a consideration of the subject somewhat difficult: 1. The lack 
of musical cultivation on the part of the majority of church- 
goers. 2. The absence of uniformity in the public worship. 
Those who possess a limited degree of musical cultivation are 
most impressed by the very elements in music which are in 
essence most opposed to the dignity of sacred music. This is 
unfortunately the case in persons of intelligence, highly culti- 
vated in other directions, who would be repelled by a literary 
work, or possibly a painting of the same grade as the musical 
compositions which are in actual use in many of our churches. 
The absence of uniformity in our church worship, in itself, 
may not be to blame for the many flagrant sins against good 
taste which occur so often in our services, but it is incidentally 
responsible. In a liturgical service, based upon the church 
year, the average church music director cannot go far astray. 
He may select poor music — as a matter of fact, he does very 
often — but he is not likely to cause music of a joyful nature to 
be sung on Good Friday, neither would he give music appro- 
priate to that day on Easter. Throughout the whole year he 
has a guide in the liturgy, and the fact that the important 
Canticles, which afford the principal opportunity for the choir, 
are integral parts of the service, which must be read if they are 
not sung, makes flagrant transgressions against fitness well- 
nigh impossible. Again, the musical service of all liturgical 
churches has been enriched by a large and varied repertoire 
of choice settings of the Canticles and scriptural texts, by 
composers who, like Dr. Dykes, were priests in the church as 
well as musicians, or, like Sullivan, Barnby and Stainer, have 



SACRED MUSIC. 215 

become thoroughly permeated by the spirit of the church. 

Every liturgical church has numerous musical traditions 
which have been maintained by generations of organists and 
choir-masters, who are thoroughly convinced of the correctness 
of the principles underlying the musical expressions of those 
ideas which the worthy and dignified religious service should 
inspire. 

The liturgical churches are not held up as models from a 
denominational standpoint, at all, but simply as an illustration 
of the fact that in order to secure absolute harmony in the 
service, that all parts may be mutually helpful, it is necessary 
to have some definite plan to which all that contributes to the 
service shall conform. If the musical taste of a congregation 
is to be elevated, it is necessary to determine how the ideal 
church music may be introduced. 

Music which upon a critical analysis can be shown to be 
dance music pure and simple, which in its arrangements of 
themes, its rhythms, the scheme of harmonies employed, can be 
assigned a definite musical dance form — cannot be divested of 
that musical character by the addition of religious poetry. 

The character of the subject would not alter the structure 
of the sonnet, in so far as the number of lines enters into its 
analysis. A waltz is something more than a graceful, rhythmical 
"swing. ' ' That element is an important one, and aids in distin- 
guishing between a waltz and a polka; but the arrangement of 
themes, the grouping of measures, are just as important, and 
more decisive as to the form than the rhythm. Now if an 
analysis of a piece of music shows it to be a dance, its place is 
in the ball-room. All dance forms appeal to the sense of rhythm 
primarily, and ordinarily this sense is the lowest in the scale of 
musical appreciation. This fact makes such music unworthy 



216 A. A. STANLEY. 

of association with such exalted truths as underlie religion. 
The fact that people like such music is no argument, or at least 
a trivial one. A majority of the human race would be willing 
to remain in ignorance, were there no such thing as an ideal 
life held up before them. The church should be one of the 
greatest educators of mankind, and should stimulate ideals. 

Music which has become associated with the theatre, the 
beer-garden, or even with emotions holy in themselves — as 
romantic love — can never be used effectively in church wor- 
ship. The more perfectly music expresses non-religious feel- 
ings, the less adapted it is for the church. Many of the most 
popular hymn tunes of the last generation, ("Lischer,'* -'Thou 
Dear Redeemer, Dying Lamb,'' ) have been sung as drinking 
songs in Germany for a generation or more. In our adaptation 
from the German folk-songs we have almost invariably selected 
the type which has the most decided metrical accent and passed 
by the substantial chorals. A love song like Ascher's "Alice" 
remains a love song even when sung to "I would not live 
alway." These examples are not quoted to belittle the subject, 
but to point out the absurdity of many of our adaptations. 

The introduction of the organ into this country was not 
effected without considerable friction. The liturgical churches 
favored the use of the instrument as an aid to worship. The 
non-liturgical churches disapproved of the instrument, as they 
feared it would prove a ''-disturber of the peace.'" The pro- 
phetic instinct of these churches has been largely justified in 
these latter days, for the organ has been used in the services 
in many instances with an utter disregard of the fitness of 
things. 

The whole idea of the ordinary opening and closing volun- 
tary is repugnant to any possessor of cultivated taste. The 



SACRED MUSIC. 217 

worship should begin with the first note of the organ, and the 
final act of worship should be the close of the Postlude. Is it 
so? May we not begin at this point and throw out some hints 
as to the proper use of the various parts of the musical service. 

In a liturgical service the prelude is short, and by virtue 
of tradition, dignified, massive, and is intended to cover the 
interval of time consumed by the rector in finding the lesson 
for the day, etc., in the service book. If a processional is 
sung, the prelude merges into this and is thus even more truly 
a part of the service. If the prelude is trivial or irreverent, 
the organist in such a church deserves no mercy, for he sins 
against great light. In many churches the voluntary is very 
often a more or less pretentious piece of music, having no con- 
nection with that which follows, even if it seems to introduce 
an anthem by the choir or the doxology by the congregation. 
It may be an arrangement from "Carmen" or a movement 
from an organ sonata. If it is a dignified, worshipful intro- 
duction to that which follows, it is artistic, judged by musical 
criticism, and in that church the first step has been taken in 
the direction of an ideal service. 

If the anthem which follows is an appropriate introduction 
to the line of thought which is to dominate the preaching ser- 
vice, it is generally an accident. If the choir director is a good 
musician — one who appreciates the true mission of music — the 
composition is devotional; if not, it may be some flippant pro- 
duction of the day, or an arrangement of some melody which 
would be debarred from the church by the application of crit- 
ical standards. It may be a showy solo for the tenor or soprano. 
If the members of the congregation are not exceptionally cul- 
tivated or anxious to become so, the showy solo will surely 
come unless its place is taken by some weakly, sentimental 



218 A. A. STANLEY. 

absurdity like "Where is my wandering boy to-night ?' r 
The hymn tune conies next in order. An enumeration of the 
hymns which have fitting tunes written expressly for them, will 
show conclusively that two-thirds of the hymns in the average 
hymnal have no value as hymns. It may seem an exaggeration 
(but the statement can be verified) that the number of hymns 
adapted to the church musical worship does not exceed two- 
hundred. Three hundred years ago the first chapter of St. 
Matthew was set to music, but the setting of sermons to music 
has since then become a lost art, and didactic hymns are avoid- 
ed by the composer. All such hymns should be eliminated. 
They are practically, for they are never sung. The versifi- 
cation of hymns is often so defective that the musician can not 
but be repelled by them. To be sure, many of these hymns 
may be very effectively used in anthem form, but these 
remarks apply more particularly to the hymns which are sung 
by the congregation. There should be no other settings in 
church. All the blame must not attach to the poet, for the 
musician who composes a tune full of chromatic harmonies ,. 
difficult intonation and extended compass sins against good 
taste. Chromatic harmonies are associated with the expression 
of the passionate in music, and the difficult intonation and 
extended range make it impossible to insist upon the one con- 
dition which is imperative if good congregational singing is 
desired. This condition is that the congregation must sing the 
melody. No one has the faintest idea of perfect congrega- 
tional singing who has not heard a large number of people sing- 
ing in unison. This grand body of tone — a noble composite 
voice — in which all the deficiencies and roughness of single 
voices is absorbed— is sustained by the varied harmonies of an ade- 
quate organ. The time may never come when a congregation can 



SACKED MUSIC. 219 

hope to sing successfully in parts until an ideal existence is ours. 

The lack of harmony in many of our church services is 
condoned by the statement that everything musical which pre- 
cedes the long prayer, has no particular connection with the 
sermon. The long prayer appeal's to stand between the two 
opposing parts, and reconciles them in a measure. Such a con- 
ception of church worship can hardly be called ideal — and why 
should there not be an ideal church service? 

The first essential in securing an ideal form of worship, is 
a perfect understanding between the pastor and the director of 
the music. If there is not such an understanding, if there is 
no prearranged plan, if the director has no idea of the sermon, 
(the understanding should go as far as that), or at least of the 
general trend of the service, no one should be blamed if the 
most absurd combinations should result. If he cannot 
enter into the spirit of the service after such sympathetic 
explanations, he should not be retained. 

The question of authority is a troublesome factor, for in 
most cases the pastor is the one who decides upon the fitness of 
things. In most cases he is assisted by a music committee 
generally appointed as a sort of compensation for a conspicuous 
want of knowledge of the subject. The possession of authority 
should be accompanied by a disposition to fit oneself to exer- 
cise such authority judiciously and understandingly . How 
many pastors attempt to learn enough about sacred music to be 
intelligent critics, safe guides, and above all possessors of 
absolute authority? A movement in the right direction has 
already been made in the Hartford Theological Seminary by 
the establishment of a chair of sacred music. 

The perfect understanding between pastor and chorister 
existing, the ideal service becomes possible. 



220 A. A. STANLEY. 

This mutual relation would, if both were courageous and 
honest, eliminate the false and debasing Moody and Sankey 
music — under which title all Gospel Hymns may be grouped. 
Church music has gone backward wherever this music has been 
introduced to any extent. The typical Gospel Hymn occupies 
the same relation to dignified and worthy church music that 
the " blood and thunder " novel does to literature. In the end 
no good can result from its retention. No self-respecting 
musician can afford to condone it, for to endorse it is to go con- 
trary to one's artistic conscience. If music is to occupy its 
proper position in the church, the best cannot be too good and 
there should be no place for music of a low grade. 

In the ideal service the music will be an integral part of 
the service in the non-liturgical as well as in the liturgical 
church. The highest type of music only will be allowed within 
the walls of the sacred edifice. The people will not like such 
music at first, but they must be made to like it. To aid this 
the organist should give recitals of the best organ music. The 
people should meet together occasionally, as a chorus, to prac- 
tice singing hymns and it would not be long before the mem- 
bers of such a church would enjoy singing the grand old chorals 
and music which like these grand melodies breathes the spirit 
of true devotion, as they never did the undignified, trashy 
hymn tunes of the last generation. The people in such a 
church would look back upon many of the musical practices of 
the present with astonishment. 

To establish the ideal church service will require patience, 
time and money. This ideal may come in your day. It may 
come very soon, it may be delayed; but the time is surely com- 
ing when all I have hinted at will be accomplished and every 
church service will be ideal. 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 



PROF. F. M. TAYLOR. 



Delivered May 21, 1893. 



To the very respectable class of persons who in our 
materialistic age still believe that God is and that man has a 
nature and destiny which involve personal relations with God, 
who believe, therefore, that churches still have a mission in 
the world, — to all such one of the most interesting questions of 
the day is this, How shall the Church, with its ideas and prac- 
tices inherited from a former age, adjust itself to the spirit and 
beliefs of our own ? For some process of adjustment is evident- 
ly necessary. The discrepancy between the two is real and 
sufficiently obvious. It is of course conceivable that men will 
cling to the older ideas in spite of their want of harmony with 
current thinking. These ideas were to the Greeks, i.e., to the 
scientific men, even in Paul's day, "foolishness." Yet they 
mastered the world. The admitted impossibility of subjecting 
the realm of religion to the processes by which knowledge is 
perfected in other fields leaves room for faith to roam without 
conscious conflict with one's general intellectual spirit and 
method. Nevertheless, the maintenance of such a dualistic 
thought-life always involves considerable difficulty, and cer- 
tainly an increasingly large number of persons are ceasing to 
attempt it. For one cause or another, disbelief in w T hat the 
so-called evangelical churches look upon as essential, is widely 
prevalent among those who still cling to a minimum of religious 



222 F. M. TAYLOR. 

faith and who desire to be accounted Christians. An impartial ob- 
server can scarcely doubt that this disbelief has come to stay. 
What is going to be done with it? What shall be done with a dis- 
sent which has become settled and substantially ineradicable ? 

To this question there are three chief answers. First, it 
is proposed formally to abolish all creeds, to leave to each 
member unlimited liberty of opinion. This would practically 
do away with dissent, since dissent implies an authoritative 
creed to dissent from. As our topic this morning is Dissent, 
we are not primarily concerned with this method of meeting 
the difficulty in question. We may touch upon it incidentally. 

A second and more widely advocated method for the dis- 
posal of dissent is to preserve rigidly the ancient shibboleths 
-and insist that the dissenter pursue the only natural and hon- 
orable course of withdrawing from the church in which be is a 
dissenter and find or organize a society adapted to his views 
and needs. The consideration of this solution like the preced- 
ing does not properly belong to our task; for our topic is Dis- 
sent within, not outside, the church. 

The third answer to the question, what shall be done with 
dissent, proposes that the churches shall tacitly recognize a 
limited right of dissent within the organization, resorting to 
liberal interpretation, mental reservations, and similar devices 
to secure the necessary stretching of the boundaries. 

It is hardly necessary to remark that this third solutionof the 
difficulty is that which is being gradually adopted in actual prac- 
tice. It commends itself to the opportunist spirit, to the tolerant 
disposition, to the desire for peace, and to the patriotic anxiety to 
maintain the prestige of numbers and wealth. As the New York 
Nation remarked a few years ago, we have passed the age of 
-" come-outers " ; we have reached that of the " stay-inners. " 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 223 

It is undoubtedly too late for any considerable increase in the 
number of sects. On the other hand, it is too early to look 
for the adoption of the no-creed policy. It is indeed doubtful 
whether such a plan will ever commend itself to practical men. 
A church is not a university or an academy of science. It is a 
practical organization having objects, the successful prosecu- 
tion of which depends in large measure on unity of opinion, 
spirit, and method. In any case the solution demanding our 
attention is that which grants a right of dissent within the 
church. This proposal we have to consider briefly in two 
aspects; viz., the justice of such a course, and its expediency. 
First, then, is it just that the doubtiug member should 
claim and the church grant a limited right of dissent ? Is 
there in reason any ground for asserting the reality of such a 
right? Here, of course, we are speaking not of a legal but of 
a moral right. Now, it is highly probable that to a great many 
persons the assertion of a right of dissent within the church 
seems almost a contradiction in terms. "Grace," they would 
say "is surely the utmost that the dissenter can ask. Some 
sort of case might have been made out when there was but one 
church and when membership in it was compulsory. But now, 
when the organization is purely voluntary, if a man comes to 
reject the standards of the body to which he belongs, he surely 
can make no just claim to stay in the church. In joining, he 
relinquished his right to think for himself on certain defined 
subjects. He agreed to think in accord with certain definite 
formulae. When he can no longer do so with a good con- 
science, his course is plain. He should get out and go where 
his views are in accord with the standards." It is even urged 
that there is something positively dishonorable in trying to 
stick to the church under such conditions. Especially is this 



224 F. M. TAYLOR. 

declared to be true if one is an authorized teacher or preacher. 
His insisting upon a right to stay is stigmatized as even dis- 
honest. His appointment was given him that he might teach 
or preach the particular doctrines approved by the organiza- 
tion as a whole. The money which supports him is usually 
given with that understanding. He is almost an embezzler. 

It is worthy of note that this position is taken not merely 
by church authorities, who may be presumed to be prejudiced 
parties; it is maintained as well by the outside public, by the 
secular press, by men quite in sympathy with the dissenter, by 
men who could scarcely find a church sufficiently liberal to let 
them in. "A church," they say " is like any other organiza- 
tion. It has a will and an opinion determined and declared 
by certain defined processes. Of course it is legitimate for 
any member to endeavor to alter the decisions of this will in 
accord with his own opinion through the regularly appointed 
means. But, when this fails, when the decision goes against 
him, plainly there is nothing left but to get out." 

These views are of course familiar. All have heard them 
many times. It is seldom that the opposite side is presented. 
It is doubtless assumed by most that there is no other side. 
Yet it is highly improbable that there is nothing to be said for 
the "stay-inner." The above reasoning is of great weight, 
but it does not wholly exhaust the case. Upon all such reas- 
oning the chief criticism to be made is that it implies a concep- 
tion of organizations, especially of church organizations, 
decidedly too mechanical. It implies that church relations are 
formed with perfect freedom and with full comprehension of 
all the limitations involved. It implies that such relations, 
once formed, create no rights, moral claims, or obligations save 
those nominated in the bond. It implies that those relations 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 225 

can be severed without inconvenience, and that the severing of 
those relations puts a man back exactly where he was when 
they were formed. Now, are these implications warranted ? 
Let us consider some reasons for a contrary opinion. 

In the first place, am I estopped from dissent because in 
entering the organization, I, with full, conscious freedom 
choose this particular church in preference to all others? Surely 
a negative answer only is possible. Nine-tenths of the mem- 
bers of the great evangelical churches have joined under con- 
ditions almost wholly precluding any such free, conscious, 
responsible action. For, first, of a large number of church 
members it may be said with scarcely any misuse of language 
that they are bom into the church. Their parents are mem- 
bers and make it their duty and their pleasure to treat the 
child as did the Jews of old. From the very cradle he is 
devoted to the Lord. While yet a babe in arms, he is bap- 
tized. As soon as he can walk, he is put into the Sunday 
School. When revival meetings occur, he is encouraged, even 
urged, to take a stand on the side of religion. Nowadays he 
is frequently taken into formal relations with the church 
before he has reached his tenth year. Almost always he joins 
while still a minor, while still thought of as unfit to bear the 
responsibilities of citizenship, to settle the petty questions as 
to who shall be mayor or councilman or path-master ; and yet 
he is asserted to be able with full, conscious freedom to decide 
whether or not he believes in the trinity, in the doctrine of 
divine sovereignty, in the inerrancy of scriptures, in the final 
impenitence of the wicked, in a host of dogmas fit for the con- 
sideration of only the ablest and maturest minds. Now, when 
at some future time some such person objects to a part of the 
church's doctrine or discipline, will it be just fair to say to 



226 F. M. TAYLOR. 

him, " My brother, when you joined the church you formally 
consented in the presence of God and his people to abide by 
its rules, you freely assented to its doctrines. You alone are 
responsible for the position in which you find yourself. You 
must in good faith abide by the vows you then took or with- 
draw from the church." Surely such words are little short of 
mockery. 

But, is the case materially different with older peoj^le who 
get into the church at a later period of life ? Not greatly ; 
especially not with the class of persons who make trouble as 
dissenters from the church's doctrine and discipline. Some 
are urged so persistently and strongly that they have no intelli- 
gent freedom in the matter. Some are practically wheedled 
in. A considerable number enter the church with a definite 
understanding between themselves and the pastor that mental 
reservations are expected. The history of many a case would 
read something like this. The pastor solicits the person in 
question to come and take his stand with the church. The 
person solicited admits his sense of the need of religion and his 
general sympathy with Christian people but urges his disbelief 
in certain accepted doctrines or his objection to certain rules of 
discipline. The pastor, thereupon, assures him that these are 
not essential matters; that no two of the clergy even, under- 
stand the tenets of theology in the same sense; that in the opin- 
ion of the pastor matters of private conduct must be determined 
by each according to the dictates of his own conscience. 
Whereupon the solicited one concludes to accept the invita- 
tion. Please do not imagine this a fancy sketch. I know 
whereof I speak. I know a young man who entered into 
active relations in an evangelical church in this city, after 
having explicitly informed the pastor that he did not believe 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 227 

in Jesus Christ as a savior, and after having been told by the 
pastor that the latter did not consider such faith essential. I 
have known other similar cases. Surely no one can fairly say 
that in cases like these the member is estopped from later dis- 
sent because when he entered he consciously accepted the 
obnoxious doctrines. Yet such men are just the sort that will 
be dissenters by and by. But, even if there is no such under- 
standing between the pastor and the candidate that he will be 
allowed considerable latitude, there is seldom that clear, defin- 
ite acceptance of the standards of the church which would 
justify representing that the man is by his own act fully 
respousible for the plight in which he finds himself. 

But the ordinary method of reasoning about the duty of 
the dissenter looks at the church too mechanically not only in 
speakiug of joining as if it were a perfectly free process, it 
commits the same error in treating the church relation as if it 
had no power to bring into existence rights and obligations not 
expressly nominated in the bond. This way of looking at the 
matter makes the rights of the member in the church entirely 
the creation of its fundamental law. He has no claims upon his 
brethren save under and in accord with that law. Now, this 
is utterly irrational. It is not possible for men to occupy 
toward one another any relation whatsoever without, by that 
very fact and barring the express terms of their articles of 
association, bringing into existence mutual rights and obliga- 
tions. The most commonplace organization, a tennis club, or 
a debating society, involves manifold relations and reciprocal 
claims beside those formulated in a written constitution. How 
much more then a church, the very body of Christ. If the 
church is at all what Christ meant it to be, its communicants 
have become members one of another, in the mystic language 



228 F. M. TAYLOE. 

of Paul, have become one even as Christ and the Father are 
one. Years of association in the Church's activities, blessed 
hours spent together in worship of prayer and song, seasons of 
sorrow when they have wept together, days of joy when they 
have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord, their common 
heritage in the church's heroic past when their fathers fought 
or suffered for the faith, all these and many other forces have 
caused them to grow together into a union of life and heart 
which no instrument of association could produce. Who has 
not felt his heart thrill with the spirit of the Church in such 
songs as Faber's " Faith of our Fathers living still in spite of 
dungeon, fire, and sword " ? 

Further, the church is not only a great living organism, 
transcending in the unity of its life any mere temporary asso- 
ciation, it is a powerful factor in determining all our other 
relations. It tends to become the organizing principle of our 
whole life. Let us suppose you are the son of a Presbyterian 
minister. You have been educated in a Presbyterian college. 
Some of the notable people of your church have come to think 
of you as a young man of promise. They are in quest of a 
college teacher. What more natural than that they should 
think of you? So, again, it is almost certain that your social 
relations will be determined along the same lines. It is prob- 
able that the woman you will wed has been brought up in the 
same church, wonted to its forms of worship, steeped in its 
glorious memories, almost indulging a superstitious fear that 
no other road to heaven is quite sure. To leave it is not merely 
to rend its own bonds, — perhaps the strongest and most sacred 
we know. — it means also the tearing of your whole life up by 
the roots. Now, is it not unchristian mockery to say to you, 
when you find Yourself dissenting from an outgrown confession, 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 229 

•' Oh, the church is a mere organization, a religious club; if you 
find yourself out of harmony with it, you have only to try 
another." Surely you will feel disposed to say with Newman 
Smyth to the American Board during the great debate on the 
proper requirements for missionaries, "Come what will, and do 
here to-day what you may, ours too are the fathers, ours is the 
historical faith of the church, ours is the right of the children 
in the evangelical work of the Christian church; and we mean 
to stay here, so help us God. Sirs, you can not put us out. 
We will not be excluded. We will not forfeit our right and 
our responsibility in the missionary work and the Christian 
church." 

We have thus seen that it is vain to deny to the member 
of the church any rights in the church because he has relin- 
quished its standards. He did not so consciously renounce his 
right to think in entering the church as to deprive him of all 
right when he begins to think. But, again, even had he done 
so, his fellows could not justly plead that their association 
together had created for him no claims upon their forbearance, 
that they were perfectly justified in thrusting him out as one 
w T ho had no rights save those contained in the instrument of 
association. Even if he had gone in with his eyes wide open, 
yet would their life together have created for him a right 
stronger and higher than that of the bond itself. But, doubt- 
less, we need to speak soberly here. The rest have rights at 
well as he. He can not have a right to such a degree of toler- 
ation as will nullify their rights. No right of dissent can be 
claimed whicn is not quite limited in its nature. 

First, the right can not properly have such recognition as 
will not consist with a high degree of unity and harmony. It 
is surely a right of the members generally that the value of 



230 F. M. TAYLOR. 

the association as a means of building them up in righteous- 
ness shall not be destroyed by bickering and dissensions. The 
unsettled condition of mind, the irritated feelings, the dis- 
traction from real religious exercises fitted to strengthen the 
character and improve the life, — these are evil results of great 
moment flowing from perpetual controversy. The members in 
general have a right to be secured against them. 

Again, the right of the minority should not be so exag- 
gerated as to involve the offensive advocacy of ideas and prac- 
tices obnoxious to the majority. The claims of the latter upon 
the association surely deserve to be considered as well as those 
of the dissenter. 

Furthur, the claims of the minority can not legitimately 
be pressed so far as to stop the proper teachers of the church 
from advocating those doctrines which the majority look upon 
as necessary or profitable for their own religious life. Undoubt- 
edly a right of dissent largely loses its value if one must fre- 
quently listen to teachings opposed to his pet ideas. This is 
especially true, if the difference of opinion concern ques- 
tions of practice. A man who considers it quite right under 
suitable conditions to play cards and go to the theater, is not 
likely to be satisfied with a toleration which relieves him from 
the danger of ecclesiastical prosecution, but still treats him to 
periodical sermons on the wickedness of his conduct. The case 
is even more serious, if he has children to listen to the denun- 
ciations of the practices of their father. All this doubtless has 
force, yet it would surely be unjust to assert that the majority 
have no right to a teaching which they think in the highest 
degree important for themselves and their families. Plainly 
we have here claims that in practice tend to conflict. The only 
escape is moderation. All parties should exercise it. The 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 231 

majority and the minority should act with caution, and mutual 
forbearance. In the end, if the situation becomes too strained, 
it is reasonable that the dissenter should leave an organization 
with which he finds himself wholly out of sympathy. Just 
when this will be in actual life, it is not possible to say before- 
hand. No hard and fast rule can be laid down. The circum- 
stances of different local churches will dictate different courses. 
City churches can nourish with a greater degree of diversity in 
opinion and practice than can churches in small villages. As- 
sociation is much less intimate; the mental vision is broader; 
the spirit is more tolerant. In any case a degree of diversity 
which makes the church alike valueless to the orthodox and 
the dissenter is inadmissible; and, in case the conflict is irre- 
pressible, the minority must yield. 

We have considered at some length the question of the 
justness of recognizing a right of dissent within the church, and 
have argued for the existence of a real but limited right an- 
swering to that description. We have now to consider briefly 
the expediency of recognizing such a right. Under this head 
it will be natural to consider the expediency of recognizing 
such a right at all and, secondly, of recognizing it in the par- 
ticular way proposed, i. e., tacitly, by liberal interpretation, 
mental reservation, etc. 

First, then, can the church afford to permit dissent within 
its borders? To begin with, as was remarked earlier, the church 
is not a university or an academy of sciences. It does not ex- 
ist for the investigation and discovery of truth, but rather for 
the propagation of a particular faith, and for the edification of 
those who have already accepted that faith. Now, can it suc- 
cessfully prosecute these ends and tolerate dissent ? As to the 
second end named, i. e., the edification of members, we have 



232 F. M. TAYLOR. 

already spoken in considering the reality of the right of dis- 
sent. We have seen that that right can not claim such ab- 
soluteness as to override the right of the members in general to 
have an association fitted to serve them in its appointed ways. 
We have now to consider toleration as affecting the church's 
fitness for its other task, — the propagation of the faith. 

Against the expediency of such toleration, it is to be said, 
first, that it is inconsistent with the necessary unity and com- 
pactness of the church's forces in the attack on the world of 
evil. Bickerings and controversies within the church will 
hinder its presenting a solid front to the foe. "If the trumpet 
give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare for the battle?" 
In the second place, with too much toleration, there will be a 
lack of definiteness and consistency in the message presented 
to the world. If all beliefs are allowed and their advocacy 
within the church permitted, the outsider will find it hard to 
get a clear idea of the nature of the salvation offered to him. 
It is difficult to resist the temptation to merriment when a 
council of liberal divines attempt to define what they mean by 
salvation. Doubtless the result is less offensive to cultured 
ears, especially to agnostic ears, than the revivalist's tiresome 
reiteration of his message "Come to Jesus and be washed from 
guilt and sin." But what is gained in taste and intelligibility 
is lost in definiteness. The man who says to the drunkard just 
from the gutter, "You have only to accept Jesus, who 
died for just such as you, and you are assured of eternal hap- 
piness. Now is your time. An hour later death may come 
and then your chance is gone, " has a message that is the about 
the most effective conceivable. If this sinner has to listen to 
siren voices from the same religious body telling him that in 
all probability there is an after-death probation, or that he can 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 233 

not expect the full joys of paradise after a life of evil, that he 
must forever take with him the evil consequences of his past 
life, or that accepting Jesus is not absolutely essential to sal- 
vation, &c, I say, if he hears all these contradictory teachings, 
the chances are that he will be discouraged and not accept the 
invitation at all. 

In the third place it is against the broad guage plan that 
it tends to the destruction of all faith. It is the old story of 
a single leak in the dike which leads to the sweeping away of 
the whole. It seems to me that the conservative party in the 
conflict with Professor Briggs are quite right in the great im- 
portance which they attach to the issue. While having no 
patience with their opinions, I consider their attitude sufficient- 
ly reasonable, as long as they hold those opinions. I think 
there can be no reasonable doubt that the admission of 
the errancy of scriptures on question of science and history 
must result in admitting its fallibility on matter of doctrine as 
well. Of course they are fighting a losing fight; for they are 
fighting against truth. But it seems almost the only way to 
defend what they believe to be essential in the Christian 
scheme. There is great force in the contention of the Catholic 
church, that the true way to meet the infidelity natural to man 
is to stand by the whole of the church's teaching. In all forms 
of so-called evangelical Christianity there is but little that in- 
telligent theologians attempt to defend in any other way than 
by an appeal to the natural incomprehensibility of the divine 
nature and the divine ways. Mystery, so-called, faces us on 
every side. To many of us it seems that mystery is here only 
a euphemism for absurdity. In any case the church can not 
afford to appeal to reason, if it would maintain w r hat most 
Christians look upon as essential doctrines. This being the 



234 F. M. TAYLOR. 

case, it is dangerous to admit any modicum of heretical opinion 
or teaching. "Set up definite boundaries. Hold to them 
without a shadow of wavering. Doubt and disbelief will scoff 
at you for a while; but in the long run you will triumph. Man 
is by nature a religious animal. He can not long live without 
religion. After his foolish wandering he will return to the 
true church which alone has historic continuity, which alone 
has never changed, which to-day as ever holds the keys of 
heaven and hell." This is the reasoning of the Catholic 
church and it doubtless has a high degree of plausibility. 

But, of course, there is another side to all this. It can be 
contended with a show of reason that liberality is the only con- 
dition needed to secure a rapid extension of Christianity. "Get 
rid," some would say, "of the mere excrescences which make 
Christianity offensive to an intelligent, progressive age. Admit 
what everybody knows in his heart to be true, that the Bible 
contains errors. Admit that whoever comes to God believing 
'that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently 
seek him,' can be saved, whether he accepts the vicarious 
atonement or not. Put away all unnecessary subleties. 
Preach the simple gospel that God is our father and man our 
brother; the gospel which is embodied in one glorious word — 
love, and the world will flock to the church as doves to their 
master's window.'' This sounds very plausible; but there is 
one trouble. It has not been borne out by the facts of experi- 
ence. For a long time a considerable number of Avorthy and 
eloquent people have been preaching such a gospel, but there 
has been no flocking to their church. This of course is not 
decisive. It is quite possible that a general liberalizing of 
Christian teaching would result favorably to the propaganda 
of this faith. It is almost certain that without the liberalizing 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 235 

which has taken place the churches would by this time have 
had many fewer adherents than at present. It is a generally 
received opinion that the Calvinistic churches particularly 
have maintained their position only by great practical conces- 
sions to the modern spirit. This would seem to indicate that 
the true way to state the argument of liberality as a help in the 
converting of the world, is not to declare that the broadest 
latitndinarianism will conduce to this result, but merely that 
so much of concession as is demanded by the prevailing 
opinions of the intelligent classes would be a powerful agency 
in securing the spread of religion. This, I am frank to say, 
is the opinion which seems to me best founded. While with 
some, the Roman Catholic plan of rigid adherence to the 
traditional faith will prove potent; with the greater number, in 
an age of general education and of a progressive spirit, 
moderate liberalism will, I believe, be practically most suc- 
cessful. 

So much for the question whether the recognition of a 
limited right of dissent will be expedient or not, considered 
without reference to the method of granting it. We have final- 
ly to ask whether the method proposed, i. e., the tacit recogni- 
tion of such a right, is the best one. 

Against it is to be said that it savors of dishonesty, that 
it encourages double-dealing on the part of the member and of 
the minister. The practice of professing assent to a form of 
words, which one believes only in a sense quite different from 
that which the words convey to most of his hearers, can but be 
demoralizing. 

Further, the absence of definite boundaries leads to 
much controversy, to legal quibbles which seem more suited 
to the secular courts than to the court of Jesus Christ. 



236 F. M. TAYLOR. 

Yet much is to be said in favor of this — the actual method 
by which heresy controversies are being settled. First, admit- 
ting the desirableness of some degree of toleration, this is cer- 
tainly the only way it can be attained. General Assemblies, 
General Conferences, General Councils are not bodies so con- 
stituted that progressive legislation can reasonably be looked 
for from them. They are naturally and properly conservative. 
Besides, the most conservative party within them have the ad- 
vantage of position. A great many Methodists play cards, 
and there is hardly a pastor who would venture to discipline a 
member for doing so. Yet what a task any man would have 
on his hands who should undertake to put through the Gener- 
al Conference a rule authorizing such practices ! Similarly a 
great many Methodist preachers hold that there are errors in 
the Bible, but who would undertake to secure an amendment 
to the articles of religion formally legalizing such a doctrine? 

But, again, not only is the tacit plan the only feasible one, 
it is, all things considered, the best one. Ecclesiastical, like 
political constitutions, should not be made but should grow. A 
change which little by little forces itself up through uatural 
obstacles is the only sort which is likely to correspond to the 
real needs of the case. Human wisdom is not great enough, 
human virtue not strong enough, to be intrusted with the task 
of prevising an order of evolution. Further, changes which 
are accomplished by the gradual, half-concealed processes 
embody real and permanent rather than apparent and temporary 
changes in public sentiment. Formal enactment has its place. 
But that place is in large measure to declare and define the 
changes which have already been organically worked out. 

What, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter? It is 
substantially this. The actual policy which the churches are 



THE RIGHT OF DISSENT WITHIN THE CHURCH. 237 

to-day working out, — the policy of by common agreement 
stretching the boundaries so as to give a limited toleration to 
new ideas, and then, as these ideas come to have common ac- 
ceptance, formally incorporating them into the fundamental 
law, — this is the policy which the soberest wisdom would 
dictate. It has its dangers and drawbacks. But it is on the 
whole the safest and fairest. It is in fact the historic policy 
of the churches. It is even the policy of that church which 
above all others professes never to change. For in reality that 
church has changed and is changing to adjust itself to a chang- 
ing age; only its concessions are long-delayed, are carefully 
hedged about, are ambiguously expressed so that the change is 
as far as possible concealed. As it has been in the past, so it 
must be in the future. The church must continue to change 
with the changing thought of man, must bear and forbear, 
must remember the words of Paul, " Him that is weak in the 
faith receive but not to doubtful disputation," must above 
all illustrate in its own internal relations that grace which 
stands pre-eminent among the three — love. 



THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



PROF. J. B. STEERE. 



Delivered March 26, 1893. 



The character and aims of this association, taken together 
with the subject you have given me to speak upon, make plain 
your object. As an association of merchants would wish to 
know of the productions and trade of a foreign country, that 
they might intelligently open new. fields for their enterprise, so 
you are looking out to new fields for successful missionary labor. 

Though the South American States are all nominally 
Christian, there can be no doubt, at least among Protestant 
Christians, that missionary labor is greatly needed there, and 
abundantly justified by the present religious condition of the 
people. 

This last is certainly a matter of first importance. Pros- 
elyting where the gospel of Christ is preached with reasonable 
plainness and where there is an open Bible, should be abstained 
from by all Christians. 

There can be no doubt that the Roman Catholic faith, 
even as preached in South America, has worked a great 
improvement in the native peoples of that country. One has 
but to pass from the christianized tribes of the coasts and great 
rivers, to the wild and pagan tribes of the interior, to satisfy 
himself that there has been both moral and material improve- 
ment. 

A religion may serve a useful civilizing purpose even after 



THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SOUTH AMERICA. 239 

it has lost all spirituality. Doubtless some also have been able 
to discover the Christ through this darkened faith, and have 
been spiritually saved; but the Bible is generally a sealed book, 
and the Gospel has been so concealed in the rubbish of proces- 
sions and ceremonies and image-worship, that few are able to 
find it. Whatever the reason, whether it be from the very 
character of the Roman Catholic religion or faith, or because 
the method of colonizing the South American States has led 
to such a mixture of races as is unfavorable to moral develop- 
ment, or because of the character of the races themselves col- 
onizing these countries, the effect of the Roman Catholic faith 
upon the South American peoples has been anything but satis- 
factory, even to the better class of Roman Catholics themselves. 
We are accustomed to lay all the moral short-comings of a race 
to the religion it possesses. This is probably just, but let us 
remember that with this same judgment we and our neighbors 
shall be judged. It makes us Christians responsible for the 
saloons and gambling dens and other immoral conditions in this 
country. 

Without interference from Protestants, and with all the 
influence and power of the temporal governments for its help, 
four hundred years of sway of the Roman Catholic church in 
South America has resulted in a large number of the tribes of 
the interior being still left pagan, and with the missionary 
spirit almost entirely departed from the church; while of the 
nominally Christian part of the population, the white portion 
are a race of atheists, while the Indians and Negroes, believe, 
it is true, but practice a faith which approaches closely to the 
idolatry of pagans. The church has failed utterly in bringing 
those who have adopted its faith up to a Christian standpoint 
of morals. The christianized tribes are indeed less blood- 



240 J. B. STEERE. 

thirsty, more industrious, and perhaps less thievish than the 
wild tribes; but marriage is held in little esteem, gambling, and 
betting, and drinking are universal, and this not alone among the 
colored races, but among the white people as well; in fact, these 
vices seem borrowed from the European colonists themselves. 

In many of the interior towns, even where white blood is 
predominant, as in Tarapoto and Moyobamba, Peru, marriage 
is very rare, and a genuine system of free love, gambling, cock 
fighting and lotteries is so universal as to have become a part 
of the life of the people; and this ganerally without a thought 
of being immoral, the church itself making use of some of 
these methods to raise money for its support. The priests 
themselves, with few exceptions, live scandalous lives, sharing 
in the general immorality of the people. 

To a much greater extent than in this country of open 
Bibles, these priests are the exponents of the religion they 
preach to the people. It will be a sorry time for the morals of 
any country when the people, instead of going to the fountain 
head of scripture for their standard, shall be compelled to find 
it in the lives of a degraded priesthood. 

The intelligent white people of South America, seeing the 
immoral lives of the priests, excuse their own faults through 
these, and at the same time discredit the religion which has 
such poor representatives. 

Atheism will be most prevalent where Christianity does 
least in bettering the lives of its followers. The world makes 
few mistakes in its judgments of religions. To carry a pure 
and living faith to those who have lost sight of Christ while 
looking at the failures of His professed follwers, is surely as 
necessary as to carry it to the pagans of the east. 

South America has an area of 5,700,000 square miles, 



THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SOUTH AMERICA. 241 

more than twice the area of the United States without Alaska. 
A great portion of this consists of the most fertile land on the 
globe, capable, when fully cultivated, of supporting a popula- 
tion as numerous as that of India or China. It is rapidly 
increasing in population, and that of people essentially Chris- 
tian, at least in their traditions. 

The population of South America, exclusive of the pagan 
and independent native tribes, but including the Indians who 
have embraced Christianity, number some 32,000,000, divided 
among the various states, as follows: Brazil, 12,000,000; Peru, 
3,500,000; Colombia, 3,500,000; Chili, 3,000,000; Argentine 
Republic, 2,000,000; Bolivia, 2,000,000; Equador, 2,000,000; 
Paraguay, 2,000,000; Venezuela, 2,000,000. 

These are of several races, white, Indian and Negro, and 
mixtures of all these in every variety. The whites number prob- 
ably less than one-fourth of the whole; the Indians of pure 
blood may include another fourth, while the remainder are 
Indians and whites, and whites and Negroes. The whites are 
relatively most numerous in Peru, the Argentine Republic and 
Venezuela; the infusion of Negro blood is greatest in Brazil. 

The whites are chiefly descended from Spanish and Portu- 
guese ancestors. 

The methods of colonization followed by these natives 
differed, and still differs radically from those with which we 
are familiar. The English colonists came over in families and 
made homes for themselves in the new country, driving back 
the native inhabitants and never uniting with them, and we are 
still accustomed to see immigrants with their families coming 
in the same way our ancestors came But the Spanish and 
Portuguese came as adventurers, men alone, expecting in time 
to make their fortunes and return to the peninsula, 



242 J. B. STEERE. 

They undertook to make use of the native races in work- 
ing the mines and cultivating the soil, instead of driving them 
before them, as the English did. They adopted in many ways 
the native styles of building, native foods, etc., and they chose 
concubines from the native women. The whites of these coun- 
tries are generally the off-spring and descendants of these 
alliances. 

In the hands of the white race is the political power and 
most of the property of the country, Avhilethe colored races are 
in various states of comparative independence, or semi-slavery, 
through a system of peonage existing in several of the various 
states. 

The whites are in general quick-witted, active, brave, hos- 
pitable, lovers of freedom, and patriotic. Their faults, many 
or all of them, seem to arise from their lack of a controlling 
religious faith, and are, perhaps, no greater than ours would be 
under the same conditions, nor than those of our people in the 
same state of faith. 

In several years of travel in South American countries I 
remember of meeting with but one white person, other than 
the priests, who ackowledged having any religious faith at all, 
and this was a poor mule driver in the Andes. Having lost 
faith in the priests, and at the same time in all that they teach, 
they have adopted in its place the atheism of France and Ger- 
many. Though utterly faithless, they still adhere to some of 
the forms of the Catholic church, and may be seen carrying a 
candle, or helping to carry a saint in a procession, but it is all 
for the looks of it, and for its effect on the people. Privately, 
they make sport of it all, as the Romans did of the state relig-. 
ion in the time of the Empire. 

In curious contrast to these stand the Negroes and Indians 



THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SOUTH AMERICA. 243 

of pure blood. With little or no education, they remain devout 
Catholics, but without true teachers of Christ; they have given 
up pagan idolatry, only to adopt worship of images, and to fall 
into superstitions but little better than those from which they 
have been reclaimed. 

On great feast days in the larger towns numbers 
of life-sized images of the saints, mounted on platforms, and 
carried on the shoulders of men, are borne in processions, with 
lighted tapers, through the streets, while rockets and cannons, 
and the ringing of bells tell to all the world that a great event 
is occurring. As images of special sanctity approach and pass, 
the on-lookers uncover their heads and kneel, so that great 
waves of bowing people are seen along the streets. Even the 
soldiers lower their muskets, take off their caps, and kneel in 
long lines. 

The more pretentious houses have little chapels attached, 
in which are kept the patron saints of the family. The poorer 
people have a closet or cabinet containing two or three little 
wooden saints, dressed out in paint and tinsel, reminding one 
forcibly of the family saints of the Chinese. 

Saint making is a regular trade in the larger towns. 
Whenever one of the frequent fast days occurs, those who are 
too far away to reach the city gather together at some convenient 
house and begin the holy day with prayer. The chest of saints 
is opened, guns are fired, candles are lighted and placed before 
the images, and all kneel and chant an Ora pro nobis in mixed 
Spanish and Latin, calling on all the saints of the calendar to 
pray for tbem, but doing no real praying for themselves. 
After this exercise, the real festivities begin with dancing, 
eating, and drinking, which is kept up continuously for 
two or three days, until all are drunk or tired out. 



244 J. B. STEEEE. 

The result of unbelief among the higher classes, and igno- 
rance and superstition among the lower, arrives eventually at 
the same end: A general state of lax morals among all. 

Granting that these South Americans have need of a 
purer faith, what is our duty toward them? 

If they ever adopt a spiritual faith which shall overcome 
their unbelief and ignorance, their help must come from us, or 
from a new revolution breaking out within the Catholic church 
in their midst. 

The mother nations of Spain and Portugal are themselves 
too dark to furnish them light. Much of the Spanish hatred 
for the English has been inherited by these peoples of the new 
world. They are jealous and fearful of the great commercial 
nations of Europe, believing that they would willingly take 
advantage of their weakness. From the first we have stood in 
a more favorable light toward them. Our success in gaining 
independence no doubt stimulated them to attempt the same. 
With the change of the form of government in Brazil, all of 
the South American States adopted a form of government 
patterned after our own more or less closely. Our success in 
continued self-government has no doubt encouraged them to 
persevere through anarchy and revolution to the same end. 

The firmness of our government in upholding the so-called 
"Monroe Doctrine" has been a tower of defence for all the 
weaker American States against European aggression. Our 
general policy of forming no colonies has rendered them rea- 
sonably sure that we are not proposing to absorb them by force. 

The visit of the Mexican newspaper editors to the Uuited 
States, and to a much greater extent the visit of the Pan-Amer- 
ican Congress, has done much to increase the fraternal feeling 
and confidence in us. 



THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SOUTH AMERICA. 245 

The title — Americano — which they agree in giving us par 
excellence, is a passport in all parts of the country. 

But not all of our relations with Spanish Americans have 
been as productive of confidence and good feeling as those I 
have mentioned. The acts of our government in the Mexican 
war are bitterly criticised by our southern neighbors, and 
patriotic Americans, unable to justify their native country, can 
only explain and excuse. The recent Chili affair will also add 
nothing to our good name. Over one hundred sailors from one 
of our war vessels were turned loose in the streets of Valparaiso. 
They sought, as is the custom of some men, and as the records 
of that Chilian affair show, the worst quarter of the city, among 
saloons and houses of ill -repute. A drunken riot arose. The 
Chilian courts investigated the matter, and reported that there 
was nothing premeditated, and that the police of the city had 
done what they could to quell the riot. But our government, 
relying on the testimony of the sailors engaged in the quarrel, 
threatened the little state with Avar, and bullied her into send- 
ing an apology and a large sum of money as recompense to the 
injured. This act, to them, at least, of injustice, will rankle for 
long years in the hearts of all South Americans and, will confront 
us when we are most anxious for the goodwill of these people. 

Probably few of them are as yet discriminating enough to 
estimate at its true neighborly value the investigations made 
and the pamphlet published by our government during the last 
administration to aid our liquor makers and sellers to better 
markets in Spanish- American countries. 

Our government, placing too little value upon our re- 
lations with these states, has given our embassies to them in 
payment for political work, and in some cases second-rate pol- 
iticians of little character have represented us. While on the 



246 J. B. STEERE. 

west coast of South America in 1872, it was common report 
that our minister to Chili at that time, a former general in the 
civil war, was often seen drunk on the streets of Valparaiso, 
and was a genuine all-round bummer. . 

Most of us are convinced that the unexampled prosperity 
of the United States depends upon its Christian virtues. We 
believe that the temperance, industry, economy and honesty, 
which are the basis of all our suceess, are the direct outcome of 
Christian faith. If we could make our South American 
neighbors see this, they would be as anxious to adopt our form 
of religion as they have been to adopt our form of government. 
Unfortunately this vast multitude of men and women who 
are trying to follow Chrtst, make but little show upon the 
surface. They do not carry their hearts upon their sleeves, 
and we pass them upon the streets and do not know them. In 
the hotels, and on the ocean steamers, and abroad, they are 
silent; while another class of our citizens, of easy address and 
manners, well dressed, with plenty of money, drink and gam- 
ble, and with mouths full of oaths and vile stories, claim to be 
model Americans, and to represent us; and it is this class of 
our people with which foreigners usually come in contact, and 
from which they judge us. 

And yet we seem marked out by Providence to carry a 
renewed gospel to the despiring people. 

Something has already been done in sending missionaries 
to South America. As long ago as 1817, Mr. Taylor, now the 
Methodist Episcopal Bishop for Africa, traveled along the west 
coast of South America, studying the opportunities for 
mission work, and established several self-supporting mission 
schools. Since then several of our various denominations have 
founded missions in various parts of the country. 



THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF SOUTH AMERICA. 247 

The progress of these missions as estimated by conversions 
is slow. This should be expected from the nature of the field. 
Much can probably be done in schools where students can be 
brought in contact with vital Christianity as lived by these 
teachers. 

The very fact that the ruling classes have come to disbe- 
lieve the Koman Catholic faith, and to look upon its priests as 
opponents of liberty and progress, makes them ready to patron- 
ize and to help support Protestant schools; but they will adopt 
a new faith with difficulty. They have been taught to call the 
Roman Catholic faith, not a form of Christianity, but Chris- 
tianity itself; and they will look with suspicion at first upon 
any religion which calls itself Christian. 

The conversion of a few of the South American students 
reaching this country might be the beginning of a reformation 
from within, which would be more successful than the surface 
efforts of our missionaries. 

Finally, then, South America is an important portion of 
the world in the number and character of its inhabitants, and it 
is rapidly increasing in importance. Its religious state is such 
as to receive a new gospel, either through reformation within 
the existing church or through missionary efforts from without. 

The field is a difficult one, one class of the people having 
reached such a state through unbelief that they no longer feel 
the need of a religion, and the other being so ignorant and 
bigoted that they can see nothing good in any faith but the one 
they now possess. 

We seem, under Providence, best fitted to reach and help 
these our neighbors, and Protestant schools with consecrated 
teachers will probably be one of the factors in this great work 
for Christ. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 18l" 053 1 



